Black Hawk Skimming
by Sinead Rivka
Summary: .AU. There was a certain connection that bound them. One that transcended words or emotions. It was something that neither understood, but one that FLAG was interested in investigating. The only problem? Karr doesn't like sharing. First KR fic. Ch 14!
1. chapter one

Black Hawk Skimming  
By Sinead

_**Author's Note:**__ This is my first ever Knight Rider fanfic, so be nice, please. I've been learning what Kitt and Karr are like through other fics and through RP. I hope that I get the personalities down right, and that things are done well. Don't hesitate to let me know if I didn't get someone right, and I'll fix it, but c'mon. Be a bit more inventive and mature than leaving flames behind ya. __**Grins**__ Raevyn is from my Transformers Series "Generation Breaker," but I'm changing her past and her character very slightly (or maybe not, depending on how I feel about it), but if you really want to know what she's like, you can find the first three stories of that series up on my profile._

.chapter.one.

"She's got the perfect aptitude for him."

"Michael, you've always managed to say the wrong things at the right time."

"Oh, and what's _that_ supposed to mean? I know what I'm talking about."

"Right. Just like I know what _I'm_ talking about. He would corrupt her, and in all possible outcomes that I can predict, would kill her. I cannot allow you to do this."

"Look, now I know–"

"No, Michael, I don't think that you do. You haven't been the one trying to reason with Karr all night about changing his ways and understanding that Bonnie and Devon wish to keep him alive and employed by FLAG, and _not owned_ by the company." Kitt sighed in a very human manner. "Don't ask me how _she_ found him still functioning, because I really don't know. But I doubt that Devon will allow her to continue her contact with Karr until he meets the terms of agreement."

"Actually," the clipped, British voice said, interrupting the argument between Kitt and his driver, leaning upon the passenger's side window, which was open as the two sat in the driveway of the mansion, home from a routine run to finish a simple case. "I feel that she is best for Karr, but at the same time, I'm sure that you know that she will get to him no matter what I say or do. And I'm not even sure how she does this. Now, that's not saying that I _enjoy_ the idea of Karr on my property, nor the fact that he is able to communicate so freely, but I do feel that he has changed, if minutely."

"He has," Kitt replied grouchily, "but not enough to be allowed a body again. I do _not_ want that girl around him."

"Is that your programming talking, pal, or just you?" Michael suddenly asked, looking at the dashboard.

A second very human sigh was released from the metal being, and he replied in a low tone, "Both, I'm afraid."

"Before you make any more assumptions about your brother, Kitt, may I show you something that I feel you will need to see?"

"Devon, that made _no_ sense, and I find it increasingly more troubling that you cannot seem to give us a straight answer, other than the fact that–"

"Kitt, Kitt, please calm down. I am well aware of everything that I am doing, my good friend. Come quietly." Devon led them to the garage, where they sat outside the door to peek into the large room. Karr's CPU was sitting on a pad, carefully kept away from static and grounded, getting a steady supply of energy, the area around him triggered with laser-beam alarms that would go off if someone approached the pedestal.

Raevyn was sitting, leaning against that very pedestal, book in her lap, legs crossed, and head bowed to read, supported by her hands. Every so often, she would say something of what she was reading . . . and Karr would respond. Not always the same way, and never truly how anyone could consider "nice," but he did indeed acknowledge what the girl was saying. It was fascinating to watch as finally, she said something in return to one of his biting remarks, which caused him to bark a laugh, then stop prematurely and snarl at her.

But she merely smiled up at the CPU, reaching up to brush a hand over the black box, her voice carrying, "Good to hear that laugh again."

"You annoy me, fleshbag."

"Aw, I love you, too, Karr."

"Meatwad!"

"Darling."

"Ugh. Disgusting."

They fell into silence again, but even the atmosphere in the room indicated that it was, believe it or not, companionable. Michael and Kitt continued to watch while Bonnie openly walked in, waving and deactivating the alarm system. "When Devon sees that you've gotten through the traps again . . ."

"Oh, he loves me and won't do a thing," Raevyn replied, smiling but not moving from where she had sat herself against Karr's perch, not looking up from her book. "He's all but said so, himself."

"Uh-huh. Well . . . do your best not to show anyone how to get to Karr. We don't want to lose him again."

Hearing that, Karr watched the woman as best as he could without his body, having become proficient in that kind of tracking in the three years since he had known Raevyn. He sighed within his processor. "By that, Dr. Barstow, what exactly are you insinuating?"

That actually got her to still her hands and turn to lean against her workbench, watching as Raevyn seemed to zone out of reality, immersing herself in her book again. But Bonnie knew more than to take it at face value. That girl was listening for not just words and meaning, but purpose in what Bonnie was about to say.

"By that, Karr, I am saying that you are Kitt's prototype, but certainly not the AI that Kitt has become."

"Flawed, you mean," Karr snarled.

Bonnie took a moment to digest that, then shook her head. "Not flawed. Different. And I don't want someone to take you from us."

"And if I wish to be taken?"

"Then hopefully it would be by Raevyn, to go back to wherever it was you two had been hiding out. Or so I would assume." Shrugging, Bonnie saw that Michael and Kitt were listening in upon this. The man stood just around the edge of the door, only his shadow showing that there was somebody there, and a small edge of the black prow "peeking" around the other side of the human-sized door. Kitt always had more stealth than his driver did. He knew that shadows often gave away position all the time. Smiling, the woman walked up to the pedestal, pausing just out of reach. "We want you back, Karr. Not to own, but as a valued associate with experience on his hands."

"Oh, but only with the 'driver' of _your_ impeccable taste," the dark AI snarled.

"Has it ever occurred to you that we want to hire Raevyn here not as your driver, per se, but as your partner? You and she have been around each other for years, you are accustomed to each other, and you know how to work together." Shrugging lightly, even though she knew that Karr wouldn't be able to see it, the woman finished with, "We _are_ looking at an all-or-nothing deal with you. You and her partnered together, or nothing for both parties. And Karr, you know what that will lead to."

He went silent, and Bonnie returned to her workbench, ignoring the look of shock that the young woman had on her face. The genius technician kept a straight face while she tinkered with a few connections and lines that would possibly be used in giving Karr a body again. She put her mp3 player into the aural player, cranking it to a moderate level. What she had just had reiterated to Karr still hadn't yet been revealed to Raevyn.

Raevyn turned to look up at the CPU, her voice low and annoyed, "Did you omit something in telling me the reason why I was to say here with you?"

That was uncomfortably close to the truth, and Karr paused, uneasy. He "huffed" before replying. "Yes."

"And why would you do that to me?" She glared hard at the CPU.

"Because you didn't need to know what they wanted."

"Sure sounds like it's a decision that _I_ have some say in as well as you do," she sniped back at him, clearly angry with his decision to not tell her that she was more involved with this production than she had originally thought.

"Well I didn't find it necessary to tell you until I had thoroughly deliberated over the situation." He was getting angry, and his voice was rising with that anger. Emotions, ugh! He was getting more humanlike with every passing moment he spent with this young woman.

She stood, snapping her book shut and glaring at the CPU. "Fine. Deliberate." Raevyn dropped the book upon the black box, turned upon her heel and stalked out of the hangar, pushing past Michael. Kitt was nowhere to be found. The elder man sighed and walked after her after a subtle glare from Bonnie. "Rae?"

She kept walking, not even bothering to answer.

"Rae, baby, can we talk?"

Apparently not, as she went into the mansion and up the stairs. Michael sighed, rubbing at the back of his neck as he continued to follow her. She was going to Devon. And she was apparently going to find out that she was the only person who hadn't known about the depth of involvement she really had in what had become another project: to win over her and Karr into participating in the _real_ project.

She was already ranting at the elder when Michael entered his office, standing at the door. Her words were fast and clipped in a familiar accent that niggled at the back of Michael's mind when he tried to place it. Slowly, he began to understand her frustration. This was summer break, and she was a college student. She didn't want her career to be tied up in secrecy, with very high chances that she was going to get hurt very badly upon each case that she would inevitably undertake.

That was when he spoke up. "Devon, I agree with Raevyn."

The black, curly ponytail whirled as he faced him. She hadn't known that he was behind her. While that could be trained out of her, Michael knew that if she didn't want to be an agent or an operative, then she wouldn't need that sixth sense sharpened.

Devon sighed. "We are not allowed to develop a third AI, Michael. Not until the problems with Karr have been resolved through relation, study of the way he thinks, and possibly reforming him."

"So you think that by resolving what you had originally called flaws in Karr's design, you can control him into playing into his programming of self-preservation? He would do that, and hate you all the more for it. Or kill you, as he doesn't have Kitt's programming, and I highly doubt that he would accept what he calls restrictive programming." Shrugging, Michael looked to the head of FLAG, his gaze not the biased look of yesteryear, but of the man that Wilton Knight had seen within the jaded officer. "Give Raevyn a job that she can agree with. Give Karr a vehicle. Give them a standing offer to come and help if they ever choose to. This isn't a job meant for just anyone, Devon. I wouldn't condemn a girl to becoming like me."

"A girl?!" Raevyn snapped.

"Woman, sorry. Look, I'm not that great with words, missie."

"You're male. It might be forgiven." But a small smile was residing around the edges of her voice.

Devon seemed to be lost in thought. Michael knew that it wasn't about the money; they could rebuild Karr a dozen times over and not be in deficit. It was the fact that they were letting Karr back on the streets that was the problem on his mind. Money might _possibly_ have sway over Raevyn, but it had nothing over Karr. Promises, either.

"How long have you and Karr been around each other?" came the soft question in the silence that had descended. Both of the people who had been given the privilege of being around an AI intensively looked to Devon.

With a slow blink, Raevyn replied, her voice just as soft as Devon's. "Seven years."

"He will have his body. I have odd jobs that do not require any conflict, just errands of sorts that will fall in with any schedule that you will have. The proposal is off, but I will take Michael's advice to not close it down completely." Looking up at Raevyn completely, the almost-old man said, "As for payment, what I can do for now is have your college bills, that's all past, present, and future bills, paid by Knight Industries. If you wish to change schools, please let me know so we can discuss the location and price." He smiled at her slack-jawed response. "I'm sure you understand that we wish to have Karr close by in case of an emergency. He means too much to you."

"Grandpa, if you _even dare_ assume–"

"I am not assuming anything, my dear. I am just acknowledging that it is by far too early for you to be making a lifelong commitment to this company. I will sign over all rights to the car to you, giving you ownership. Karr, himself, however, is as Kitt is: free. Neither are owned."

"Even though Kitt feels that he belongs to me," Michael chuckled, smiling and shaking his head. "Best friend I've ever had." Looking up at the college student before him, he asked, "By the way, kid; where are you from?"

She didn't miss a beat. "Boston, Massachusetts."

Oh. So that was why she and Kitt sounded alike. Shoot. He'd best not get her that angry again. He hated North-Eastern tempers.


	2. chapter two

Black Hawk Skimming  
By Sinead

_**Author's Note:**__ Thank you to those who commented and story alerted this story. I honestly didn't expect either so soon. And since I finished the next chapter, I figured that I'd get it up. Chapter three is in the works, and I hope that you enjoy this chapter as much as you enjoyed the last chapter._

.chapter.two.

The soft light on the CPU pedestal whispered of gentleness, of openness. It lied. Karr was a dangerous machine. He was mean, he spoke sharply, he was evil. He was dark, and he didn't care about anyone save for himself. He hated all humans for the things that they had done to him in the past. They were worthless, they were emotional, they were crazy and all, _all_ of them, behaved illogically, just like those who had ruined his early days of activation, turning him into the killer that he now was.

Or so he kept telling himself.

Lately, he had been reaching out for one human just as during her formative years, she had reached out to him. Lately, he had been needing companionship, hating the silence that always seemed to be surrounding him. Lately, he had been tired with the fear that everyone felt around him, even as he was a mere box, a mind without the body. The only one who didn't fear him was _her_.

Raevyn.

"I'm sorry for being angry, Karr."

He didn't answer her right away, pinpointing her location by her voice. He hacked into the system and deactivated the laser-beam security measures. Contrary to what Bonnie thought, Raevyn wasn't the one who somehow got through the web of laser-triggers without setting a single one off. Karr had always turned the triggers off, all the while making it seem like they were still on, erasing any lapses in the records that showed that she simply walked in a straight line to his pedestal. Karr's voice tried to coax her close to where he was, wanting someone close, hating the solitude. He always hated solitude. He hated it more than he hated the humans. "You are the only one who has ever offered an apology to me. You are the only one that has ever cared enough about what . . ."

She moved closer to him, her bare feet making soft noises against the floor. Once within the inner perimeter, where Karr always kept the alarms off because even _he_ would set them off, despite the fact that he had no way to move, save for what Bonnie called "an act of God." He wasn't quite sure what that woman meant. Raevyn ran a finger along one edge of the CPU. "About what you feel, Karr?"

"I am not programmed with emotions."

"No. But they happen normally. Naturally." She kept up the small touch of running a finger along the CPU. While he may not be able to feel things, she found the familiar touch comforting to herself.

"I am not a result of nature," he said quietly, dangerously. He tried to make his mood sound as black as possible.

"Mm?" she replied, leaning against the pedestal, resting her chin against her fist and watching the CPU.

"Don't play psychologist with me. Just because you're taking those classes doesn't mean that I have to be your blasted guinea pig."

"I know. I'm just thinking that you're as natural as I am."

"You're digressing."

Raevyn's eyes lowered, and her voice was soft. "I know. Karr, I'm sorry for getting angry. You're the one that they want, so obviously they would talk with you about more things than they would tell me, the sidekick. And I understand how you like to see things from all angles before making any decisions."

He hated admitting to a few things, and that he had been wrong was one of them. So he didn't, instead giving off a small neutral sound that was the easiest way that he could say that he was sorry. It was almost like a hum, yet softer, more thoughtful. She always had understood that noise, even when Karr had given it off without even thinking about it, back when she was young, and he had stopped talking to her for a few days after she had been heartbroken over a breakup with a boyfriend and had needed comfort that he couldn't, and didn't have in the first place, to give. Not that one could say with conviction that fifteen-year-old boys were ready to court young women of the same age with the intent of being together for periods of over fourteen days. To many, anyone at the age of fifteen was a mere child.

"Karr . . . I don't know if anyone came to talk to you about what Devon spoke to me about when I left."

"I know that the book you rested on me _hurt_," he snapped without even processing that he was going to say something in return. Inwardly cursing, he knew that he had meant to say, that Devon himself had come down to talk to Karr about the new decisions that Raevyn had insisted upon.

But what he had said got her attention as she found the place where her book had smacked down upon the metal casing, stopping at the edge of a small patch of metal that she knew he could well and truly feel. "Oh, Karr, I'm sorry," she whispered, brushing her hand not on that patch, but next to it, the warmth of her hand able to be translated into a soft touch of apology. "I was angry, and I didn't think."

"It _hurt_," he said in a softer, more private tone of voice. This was the Karr that nobody but Raevyn was allowed to see. It was the Karr that had been scarred by tests that any young AI should never have to process, the Karr that was weak.

"I know," came the softer reply of the young woman, just before resting her palm against the sensor, not moving it, just applying soft, constant pressure. Not ever Bonnie dared to touch it, nobody dared to even touch a two-inch radius of that patch, a slightly darker color than the rest of the CPU. Raevyn only knew about it when she had been investigating Karr's housing on a very rainy night only three years past, running her hands over the black box and just thinking over a lot of things, enjoying the sound of thunder with the for-once contented AI.

That was also the night that she had realized Karr could purr.

"I know what Devon's proposed. He came directly to me after Michael insisted that he and Kitt take you to the beach for something to eat." The AI didn't purr, but he wasn't as on-edge, on-guard, as he had been before she had touched him. "I . . . I believe it is a wise action to take."

"Is there anything that we should insist upon?"

"A fast car. Very fast. Black."

"Flashy?

"No . . . something very nice, however. Something . . ."

"Subtle muscle-car?"

"Mm. Maybe."

They fell silent, and she slowly moved her hand away, rubbing at her ear lightly. "Karr?"

"Yes?"

Blinking, she shook her head. "It's . . . it's okay. We'll figure out details later."

"Tell me," came the soft insisting, pushing lightly at Raevyn's defenses. He was being amicable, social, and genuinely wanting to hear what she had to say.

Drawing in a deep breath, the twenty-year-old replied, "It's okay. I just have a few ideas that I'm going to have to mull over for a while before I say them out loud to you."

"About a body?" he surmised.

_What that the body were human,_ Rae thought to herself bitterly, keeping all emotion save for a tired note from her voice. "Yeah. Don't worry about it. I'm sure that things will work out. I'll make sure to turn down frumpy cars."

"I'm touched. Honored."

"Oh, shut up."

.o.

Leaving Karr's garage and walking out under a moonlit night, Raevyn found herself turning softly at the sound of gravel crunching. It was a black Trans-Am, no driver sitting behind the wheel, a red scanner softly roaming to and fro on its prow. His prow. Kitt.

She smiled sadly. "Hey."

"You look like the ice cream did you no good at all. I thought that all humans enjoyed that kind of cold treat." Kitt rolled forward so that he could turn and open his passenger door for the young woman. "Then again, I have known Michael to scorn sweets in favor of a good talk to clear the mind."

Reaching out, touching the door but unsure of a few things concerning the AI, Raevyn asked, "Would he mind if we talked?"

"He is my friend, not my keeper," was the gentle tease returned to the young woman. "Nor is he my lover."

"Should I tease you back about that?"

"Seeing as Michael is human and I am most obviously not, nor do I replicate the same emotions as a human, I don't see where there are grounds to tease upon." Kitt seemed to sniff indignantly upon the matter, but also found out what the problem was with that one small comment from the woman who refused to sit upon his interior. And the car sank slightly upon its wheels as Kitt sighed. "Oh, little one . . . you've fallen for Karr."

"Y-yeah."

"Well . . . come, then. Sit down, let me close the door and we can have a good private chat and help you sort your mind out about this, shall we?" The tone was more than understanding, it was accepting of her dilemma. Kitt genuinely cared about Raevyn, ever since he had discovered her, ever since that first conversation. When Karr was having to talk to Michael, Bonnie and Devon about classified information, Kitt would find himself with a young woman sitting upon his hood, soaking up the heat from his engine and the sun. They had many long talks. "But if we happen to go off-grounds, Michael will pitch a fit that might end up rivaling your own righteous anger."

"He's jealous."

"Oh, _please_. I have more reason to be jealous than him. He spends more time with women and thinking about women than he does on how to keep me in one piece and functional on some days." Kitt waved his door lightly. She was a jewel among those her own age, and should be treasured as such. He would never pressure her into anything, unlike Devon would, or unlike Karr.

But then . . . Karr said that all the times he had pressed Raevyn into doing or thinking something, it ended up for the better, and she matured in it. Kitt hadn't brought it up with Raevyn, seeing as he wasn't supposed to know about it.

Sliding into his passenger seat, Raevyn pulled the door closed after herself, hugging her knees to her chest while Kitt moved off to the far side of the property, not even really stopping, always moving even that little bit. His voice was calming, smooth. "When did you first realize that you love him?"

Raevyn really didn't want to think about this, really, she didn't. "I thought that you said that you can't understand human emotions."

"I understand them wonderfully. I admit that some of the reasoning behind the emotions gives me trouble, however." He waited patiently for her answer.

The young woman sighed. "About three years ago."

"If I'm remembering my conversations with Karr correctly, that would have been the year that you realized that he had a sensor upon his CPU." Kitt, too, had one, but nobody save for Bonnie when she had done rough and painful repairs upon the AI or his physical body had touched it, and it was for reassurance, for comfort. He never wanted anyone else to touch that sensor. It was _his_.

"Yeah," she murmured, rubbing at her nose lightly. "He purred."

Kitt's voice smiled as he warmed his interior slightly to ward off the chill of the wind that was starting up in this midnight hour. "That seems to have carried over with me."

"You have one, too? I mean . . . you purr?"

"Of course. I gave permission for only Bonnie to touch that sensor, and she won't unless she's half in my engine and pulling things apart and painfully repairing things. It's comforting. I don't know how it would translate into human terms." Kitt moved around the edge of a small pond, seeing Michael and another figure sitting upon the small gazebo out on the water. He scanned it, and was pleased to see that it was Bonnie. Whether they were out there as mere coworkers or as potential lovers, Kitt didn't know. But he was happy that the two most important people to him were getting along so well.

"Raevyn . . . do you understand Karr?"

She thought about that for a long moment. "I think so."

It was an honest answer. "But you understand that while he sounds human, talks human, he isn't. He does not feel the same emotions that you do, nor would I put it past him to really want to _learn_ how to feel the same emotions. Karr . . . he is programmed differently than I am."

"Self-preservation."

"Yes. If it might even possibly cause him harm, Karr will steer clear of it. He might look upon the emotion of caring for someone as being detrimental to his safety."

Raevyn sighed, leaning her head against Kitt's seat while she, too, watched as Michael reached out hesitantly to brush a piece of hair from Bonnie's face, then let his hand drop. Her voice was tired, defeated. "I've known him long enough to understand that whatever I feel . . . he will never feel in return."

The tone of her voice was too much for Kitt, and he turned away from where Michael and Bonnie were talking, driving slowly over the grass back towards the mansion. He had originally wanted to talk to Raevyn and discourage her from getting too involved with Karr. But she was already doing a great job of doing that all on her own. He had just heard the sheer depth of her emotional turmoil and pain, and now he had to re-evaluate what he was going to have to do.

"Rae?"

"Y-yeah?"

"I wish I could wipe your tears, little one. I didn't mean to make you cry."

Smiling, cheeks shining, the young woman whispered, "It's okay . . . I needed to just release, yanno?"

"Michael doesn't like to cry."

"He's a man. Men think that it's a weakness to cry." Sniffing deeply, Raevyn rubbed at her eyes, her face. She curled her side against the passenger seat, wrapping her arms around her legs. "Thank you . . . about what you said."

"What do you mean?"

"About wishing that you could wipe my tears. Thank you."

Kitt cracked the driver-side window to allow fresh air in while he rumbled his engine reassuringly. Within fifteen minutes, she was asleep. Kitt told Michael that he had her, but not to bring her up to her room, or even to come to see her unless it was an emergency. He pulled into the garage that was holding Karr's CPU.

Karr felt the security measures deactivate, and with a startled noise, he realized that he was without any form of defense. There was no way to keep himself from being destroyed!

"It's all right, brother. It's me."

"Kitt!" the elder AI snarled.

"Hush. She's asleep in my passenger seat." Kitt rolled up to the pedestal, reconfiguring the security measures so that they all tied into him for the night, and not into the main security frame. He made sure that he was within the inner circle, his passenger window right beside Karr's pedestal. "But I have something you need to know."

He played the recording he had made of the conversation between himself and Raevyn.


	3. chapter three

Black Hawk Skimming  
Sinead

_**Author's Note and review replies are at the bottom.**_

.chapter.three.

Karr was silent for almost three minutes after listening to what had been spoken. When he finally spoke, it was in a quiet voice, not at all how he spoke to even Raevyn. It was how he would always talk to his younger "brother" when there was nobody else around.

"So she . . . loves me. And in the way that one would love someone . . ." Falling silent, Karr had no words for how he really wanted to explain the predicament that he now found himself in. The AI seemed to sigh deeply. "Kitt . . . this . . ."

"It's nothing that you could have foreseen."

"Never." Karr seemed to shift then shiver once in Kitt's perception of him.

"You can't even begin to understand how human emotions work, so how can you understand this?" Kitt supplied, hoping that he was reading this conversation correctly.

"That is where you are wrong and we are different," Karr murmured, feeling Kitt not even mind his biting words as they synched up to a point, allowing Karr to read Kitt's scans and for a brief moment, look around themselves. But when he tried to look towards the passenger seat, Karr stopped himself, directing the scans elsewhere again.

This confused Kitt, who was fully aware of what Karr was doing with his systems, and he wasn't above asking why.

"I made the vow once to not look upon her unless it was with my own scanners, not borrowed vision," came the growled reply.

"You don't know what she looks like?"

"No."

This . . . this was astounding. It was nothing like the Karr that he had once faced twice, and had unfortunately also destroyed twice. Kitt was shocked, stunned, and there was nothing that he was able to say or do that would break that shock that had settled upon him.

Karr chuckled and his voice held a smirk in it. "Oh, so you still thought that I was still completely evil, misguided, and willing to pry into all places of Raevyn's life, knowing all her physical nuances, all her movements. You still thought that I was planning to manipulate her, taking all the advantages that I could with her so that I would be able to control her!"

"You would have to pardon me on that," Kitt replied in a quiet tone. There was a long pause between them, which Kitt broke. "You've never seen her."

"No. And I never will see her."

"Why say that?"

Karr was silent for a long while. "Because I'm safer being as I am. I'm safer being like this."

"Safer? Kitt hissed, unable to understand what his elder brother was saying. His voice woke Raevyn, who stayed silent and unmoving. "_How_ can you be safer when you're like _this_?"

The elder AI was silent for a moment, unaware that Raevyn was awake, listening to him. It was with a small noise of defeat, Karr murmured, "Because I can't hurt anybody."

"Your programming is for self-preservation! You don't have the primary programming to regard humans as precious."

"Why, then, do you think that I am making this decision to not hurt myself?"

"But why not strive for more?"

"Because then I won't cause _her_ harm. What she said only solidifies what I was feeling about the situation. If I can't drive off, if I can't leave. If I can't leave, then I can't hurt her. And then I can't hurt myself." Karr gave off an electronic noise of irritation. "You're making me repeat myself unnecessarily."

"But you . . . you care about her?"

"She . . . is to me as Knight is to you."

Kitt had been pressing to know why Raevyn hadn't been completely pushed away by Karr, and now he knew. "But you hadn't been created with her in mind, like I had been created with Michael in mind, made to complement him, to be the perfect partner to him."

"I choose her as my partner. If I hurt her, it would be to my own detriment. Therefore, I cannot take that chance. I cannot go through with this project. I will have to find a way of powering myself to keep from shutdown." Karr growled wordlessly before drawing back from Kitt's sensory systems.

"I don't want you to give up on this, Karr."

Kitt was shocked. He didn't think that Raevyn was going to speak up. And because Karr wasn't monitoring the young woman, he didn't know that she had awoken. He fell silent in that eerie way that Raevyn automatically knew that he was angry at her listening in. But she kept speaking, rolling the window down and sitting on the edge of the door to reach out and carefully pick Karr's CPU up, keeping all the wires connected. She then sliding back into Kitt, cradling the metal box on her lap. "I . . . I never thought that you would want me to say safe, and that you would deny yourself another way of being free. You _know_ that it's truly more dangerous to stay as a CPU, Karr."

"It's easier. Simpler."

"Right. Says the one who wanted a flashy black sports car."

"I never said such a thing."

"Liar."

"Think what you will."

"Really? Then I think that I like the idea of having the blackest, key-scratch-resistant, fastest car on campus." She relaxed in Kitt's seat, well aware that the younger AI had masterminded this, or something like this. "And I think that I'd like sitting in that driver's seat to have a good long chat."

Karr was beset with a worry that he had never felt before. She was pushing him away? After what he had just heard from the conversation that Raevyn and Kitt had, she was going to change so swiftly, now not even wanting his presence close by?!

"Karr, say something. You're worrying the little one."

"He is _not_ worrying me," Raevyn said just as Karr snapped at Kitt, "Don't interfere!"

The duo fell silent, Kitt's amused "hm" brushing over them. After a long silence, Kitt asked in his normal sarcastic nature, aiming to poke at his "big brother" in a way that would get everyone closer to a solution to this problem, "So are you going to get that body after knowing that she approves of it, Karr?"

The other AI snarled a rather mean human curse at Kitt, to which Raevyn barked a laugh. But he paused before saying anything else. "Seeing as she wishes to have her space from my presence, then yes."

"What? No, I don't."

"Then why are you insisting so much?"

"Because I want to be able to interact with you, and the only interaction that we have right now is verbal sparring."

Karr's voice was quiet. "Not on our good days."

Equally quiet was Raevyn as she acknowledged that. "No, not on our good days. I know."

Seeming to gather his strength and gather his wits, Karr replied firmly, "Then I will agree with Devon's terms if you feel that they sit well with you, too, Raevyn."

She brushed a finger over the CPU edge, smiling, curling up with Karr nestled safely within her arms. "Mm. We'll talk again tomorrow. I'm going back to sleep."

Karr felt her heartbeat for the first time.

.o.

Bonnie approached the TransAm with soft footsteps, rewarded by hearing Kitt's voice as a low murmur. "Raevyn is sleeping, and Karr is resting. He has not felt safe since coming here, and this is the first partial-shut-down that he has allowed himself to have."

Walking closer, she looked in through the driver-side window that Kitt had silently rolled down for her. And she rested her hands on the edge, smiling at the scene. Raevyn was curled up lightly against Kitt's passenger seat, the K.A.R.R. CPU within her arms, held against her chest. It was the picture of peace. With a smile, she stood and let her hand slide along Kitt's hood. "I'm going to start working on the blueprints for the technology that we'll have to invent for Karr, as well as for your new body, Kitt. We'll have the usual people making both bodies."

"I believe that it might be best if they didn't know that you were designing one body for Karr," Kitt replied after a thoughtful pause.

"I had no intention of telling them about who the bodies were for. Nor was I going to tell them why I was having them make two." She turned and levered herself up onto her workbench, sitting in a very casual, teenage-like way, even though it had been many, many years since she had been that young. She didn't let many people see this side. Being a woman in what seemed to so obviously be a man's job, Bonnie really didn't like to show that she was human, too. "But enough about who to tell and whatnot. You gave me a rather interesting email last night."

"Before I answer any questions, I want to make sure that you and Michael are still on good terms."

"Why wouldn't we be? And why are you asking?"

"Because I'm well aware that you and he were having a chat yesterday."

She blushed, then shrugged. "Yes, we did, Kitt."

The AI seemed happy, and his scanner flashed once. "Good. I prefer it when you both get along."

"Okay, why?"

"Because you are the two most important people in my life," Kitt replied, honest. He didn't supply anything else other than that.

Smiling brightly, Bonnie pulled her hair back from her face and secured it in a ponytail. "Now I get to grill you, Kitt. Why all the specifications in that email? And that special case that you requested be made? That's going to be a major security breach, and I don't know why you would want to be removable from the car in such an easy fashion."

"That list was not for me. It's for Karr."

Taking a moment to process that, the woman rubbed at her jaw lightly, looking up at the ceiling. "That would explain the last few lines, then."

"Quite."

Hopping down, Bonnie winked at Kitt, hitting the "play" button on the mp3 player stand. "Well. I'd better get started then, now shouldn't I?"

Peter Gabriel's voice flooded the garage.

.o.

_**A/N:**__ Thank you so much for the encouraging reviews. They help to make it easier to write, somehow. I'm not quite sure about the connection, but I'm very glad for it. Here__ was__ the third chapter__, the fourth is on its way__. I'm writing this in all my spare moments between class and when I need to procrastinate about reading for class. The speed of the chapters might slow down as the semester progresses._

_Tempest2000: Thank you! Yeah, I think that I love Kitt because he's such a sarcastic love, and Karr because . . . the angst. Yeah. I seem to love the angst. XD_

_Cosmicfalcon__: I wrote this story because I really didn't have any good Karr __fics__ to read, either. And because I was having muse issues. My Transformers muse decided to play hide-and-seek when I didn't want to play, and the Knight Rider one popped up.__ So I decided to have fun._


	4. chapter four

Black Hawk Skimming  
By Sinead

.chapter.four.

Raevyn awoke slowly to hear playful arguing, wondering what it was that had triggered her awakening. After a moment of the half-awake fuzzies, the young woman opened her eyes to see Michael sitting in the driver's seat, his feet propped up on Kitt's open door in the very image of relaxation. Bonnie had just finished making a point, shoving a screwdriver in Michael's direction, causing the man to laugh softly.

"I am glad that I do not have scanners. Listening to you two flirting is revolting enough on its own," Karr growled, his voice not _too_ dangerous, but just black enough to make it known that he was playing in his way. If you didn't know Karr well, however, you would have thought that he was well and truly disgusted.

"You're just saying that because you're unable to understand the way these two relate to each other," Kitt replied, his voice the very essence of a smile. "Personally, I'm rather glad that I can 'see' how Bonnie looks ready to throw a screwdriver at Michael."

"I'm not about to throw a screwdriver at him; I'm about to throw the blasted hammer in his direction," came the head technician's laughing retort.

"See the abuse that I have to deal with, Karr?"

"Touching," was the droll, dry counter. The CPU whirred for a moment before the AI murmured, "Good morning, Raevyn."

She brushed a hand over the sensor subtly. "Good morning."

Michael's head lolled to one side so that he could look at the awakening young woman. "You couldn't have slept well in here. Seriously. I get kinks in my back from doing stuff like that."

"But that's because you're old."

She was sitting on Kitt's closed door and leaning out of the window to put Karr back upon the pedestal, very careful of the wires while doing so. Michael was indignant. "I am not!"

"I slept fine," she replied, smiling as Kitt backed up slightly so that she could open his door and step out, brushing her hands along the black paintwork and smiling. "Kitt's very comfortable."

"Thank you," Kitt replied smugly. "You see, Michael? I was right. You're getting too old for this."

"You little sneak!"

Laughing, Raevyn stretched and then began to walk off. "I'm going to get a shower then get something to eat. I'll be back soon."

"Once you are, I need your help looking for something!" Bonnie replied.

"Like what?" Raevyn walked backwards towards the door.

"Like a vehicle for Karr. Hey!" She tossed a pin at Michael, who caught it and tossed it to Raevyn, smiling at her confused expression. Bonnie grinned. "Worked on that this morning while you were still asleep. It's a communications link that only Karr can pick up on and reply to. He also doesn't have to reply verbally, so whatever you say to him, so long as you know nobody's around you, it's perfectly confidential. I'll work on something that can integrate with your phone once we're done with the current projects." She turned back around and seemingly began to ignore everyone around her.

Raevyn slipped out of the garage just as Michael began a quiet conversation with Kitt, their voices mingling in a way that was kind, soft and showing that they were really solid friends. The newest employee of Knight Industries made her way up to the mansion, fingering the pin before murmuring, "Karr?"

"What?" came the irritable, snappish reply.

It hit home and hit harder than it normally would have, considering what the night before had been like. Where was that comforting presence that had whispered a tender "good night" to her just before she had fallen asleep? Had she done something wrong already? Raevyn was silent for a good minute, all these things running in circles in her head and pressuring her to not even say anything.

"Raevyn?" Karr asked, so very softly.

She was slow in answering. "Did I do something wrong?"

He huffed, then said in a half-annoyed tone, "Yes. You put me down and walked away without a word. But . . . don't sulk. That's Kitt's job."

Rubbing at her nose once, Raevyn walked to her room, nodding to a few of the other personnel that resided at the mansion as either cleaning staff, engineers that were called in for consultations, you name it. She got into what Devon had established was a permanent suite for her, grabbing everything that she needed for a shower. "Why shouldn't I sulk? I need a shower, I need to do something about the human stink that I have."

"You know that I was always only joking about smelling you. I have no olfactory sensors, and I never have."

"Doesn't mean that it didn't hurt, Karr."

"Yes, yes, I know. I always hurt you. But I'm going to try _not_ to from now on."

"Just because I'm your partner."

Karr growled and then snapped, "No, because you love me and I don't want to hurt and torment you more than I already have." He fell silent abruptly, as if he had said more than he intended to.

Raevyn stared into space, then whispered, "You _do_ care about me."

Karr sighed. "Of course I do. I have for a while." His voice deepened into a growl. "Don't tell anyone."

"You still have a reputation to live up to, I know." Leaning her hands onto the countertop in the bathroom, Raevyn let her mind process what she had just heard. After a soft sigh, she whispered, "Karr, what was Kitt talking to you about before I woke up?"

"I would rather not say."

"Please, Karr."

Back in his CPU, the hot black presence seemed to pause in his endless pacing of the confines of the box. He stopped and stayed very still for a long moment. Then he whispered in return, "Kitt replayed the conversation you and he had." When she was silent at that, he asked, "Are you angry with him?"

"No . . . he was doing what he felt would advance the situation into something that could only get better." Pausing, she sighed and rubbed at her forehead. "Karr, I'm not really awake yet. I need a shower and I need something to eat."

"I know."

"Hey . . . I want you to know that I'm very proud of you for stepping out like this."

Karr was silent at that, and she put the pin on the counter, keeping it on a place that wouldn't get damp. She smiled and then started the shower, warming up the water before even beginning to step in. Raevyn hated the cold.

.o.

Two days later found the specialized case for Karr finished, and the AI housed within it. He felt even more enclosed, but he would get used to it. The case itself held a power source that would recharge off of the car he would be within, and it would last fourteen hours. His personal batteries were half-fried from haphazard recharges while he had been under Raevyn's inexperienced care. He only had enough energy on good days away from a direct-feed of electricity to talk and interact with her. Those were the days that he wished that he could have activated the sensor because a good many of his programs had to be put in hibernation so that he wouldn't shut down until the energy came back. It was a fearful place, that shut down.

Hands ran over the sensor, familiar ones. The casing was open on the top, allowing access for that sensor to be touched. He was smooth. "I'm curious to know if there is anyone else in the room, Raevyn."

"Nope."

"Truly."

"Hack in and scan."

"Well, fine. Where's my body?"

"So far, the blueprints are getting finalized to pass the inspection." She kept her hand on the sensor, opening a spiral-bound report to at the unfinished plans and how everything fit into the new, smaller car.

"Whose inspection?"

"Devon first, then Kitt, then yours."

"Well, I'm glad that they decided that I would have the final say about that."

"They? They who? Bonnie had me twist Devon's arm with the way that I'm able to be adorable and cute and undeniable."

Karr chuckled darkly, and his voice was velvet-smooth, almost dangerous. "You really have been taking to my influence well."

"Nope. I've been learning from arguing with you and making sure that I win when you say that I should do something when I don't want to." She was laughing, just resting her fingers upon the sensor with a smile. "Silly goofball."

Playing offended, Karr made a noise before saying, "Will you allow me to hack into the files before they even get to Devon?"

"No. I want you to be surprised."

"What are you hiding?" he said, his voice smooth as a smirk, and twice as amused as one.

"Something. You'll see."

"Mm. Tease."

"That's right."

"Not even a hint?"

"Okay, fine." Grinning, she leaned in to whisper, "You're going to have a frame that will make Kitt whine with envy."

". . . oh, _nice_."


	5. chapter five

Black Hawk Skimming  
By Sinead

**_READ THIS!!!_**_ Short, I know, but I kinda ran out of muse near the end. Review with ideas! I might end up using them at this point, and will give full credit to the reviewer if I do use it. Thank you, enjoy, and here's the long-awaited mention of what Karr's new vehicle will be._

.chapter.five.

"It's . . . it's a _what_?" For once, Karr was shocked with the information that he had finally been able to process. He had all the plans, he had all the schematics. He could see where Devon's hand had touched, and he was twice as impressed with where Kitt had obviously made revisions. So far, there wasn't much that he would change, now that he had seen what they had done. A few small modifications, yes, but more than that, things that Kitt couldn't have thought of, since he had a male driver and one who was quite a bit larger than Raevyn.

"Pontiac Trans-Am Firebird, year is a 2002. There are a couple of mods that will keep your engine cooler for longer, some that are custom jobs to make the body more aerodynamic, some that will make it so that you can adjust the height of your chassis, you know them all by now, probably, but in all due honesty?" Raevyn grinned as she looked at a CGI rendering of Karr's new frame. "That is one sexy looking thing."

Purring in glee, the AI chuckled darkly, startling Michael into staring hard at the box. Raevyn merely smiled and tapped the casing, and Kitt piped up. "_Now_ are you looking forward to having a body again, Karr?"

"The evidence given is more than convincing." He was still sounding more dark and evil than he had since coming here, and it was beginning to even unnerve Bonnie, who had begun to see Karr as being almost as benevolent as Kitt. "_Quite_ convincing."

Raevyn looked over the schematics on the computer screen before her, then murmured, "You had better be patient about this, Karr."

"I shall be patient when the time to be patient comes." He had already started adjusting a few things here and there that would custom the frame so that only Raevyn would be comfortable in . . . in him. Sobering at that, he purred smoothly, "I am not seeing a color for this new body. There has not been one specified."

Chuckling, her voice deepening in the show of amusement so that it seemed to echo Karr's own shadowy delight, Raevyn replied smoothly, "Black, Karr. Of course. But I have a particular paint design that I believe you would approve of."

"Mmm, I might enjoy denying you that privilege."

"Really, now. And what if it looks something like _this_?" The young woman inserted an SD card into a slot adapter that had been installed in the new CPU case that enclosed Karr's original casing.

He was silent for a full moment.

Raevyn smirked.

"You did this."

"Mmhm."

Karr chuckled in a deep tone that sent shivers down almost everyone's collective back.

Michael watched Raevyn quietly, Kitt's words from the recent past coming back to haunt his mind and very soul. Karr had indeed influenced Raevyn. He _had _corrupted her and changed her. His mind was so heavy with this thought process that he didn't notice that Raevyn was watching him intently until his gaze focused upon her. He watched her watching him, seeing at tender look and smile cross her face. He blinked, shocked, and heard her saying, "Michael, don't like at me like I'm some wolf in a sheep's clothing."

He didn't know what to say.

"I can see you thinking about something." Pausing, she looked at him and then whispered, "Ah. Michael, I think that it's time that you and I talked about a few things, and on the basis of equals, as drivers and as partners to two wonderfully-created AIs."

"Maybe later."

"Maybe right now," she insisted, walking closer, feeling Kitt come up beside them, rolling smoothly to a halt half a foot beside their knees. "Because you've been twice as edgy around me since we have started the project of rebuilding Karr."

"I must admit, Raevyn, that it might be because of me." Kitt's voice was quiet, repentant. "I expressed my doubt that you were not able to hold your own against Karr, and that he had corrupted you."

Resting her hand upon Kitt's hood as if to say that it was all right. She wasn't angry at this turn of events, just curious about a few things of Michael's mindset. With a small look that had a smile whispering off of it, Raevyn said, "It's okay, Kitt. I know that it's part of who you are to worry about us humans." Looking to Michael, she said quietly, "Mike, lemme tell you something: You weren't there all throughout the last seven years that I have known Karr. You haven't been there to hear him, and you haven't been there to know that he was hearing you. Trust me on this. There is a lot of stuff that you really don't understand about Karr and me. One of them is how we bond as partners. Another is our mode of communication. Kitt can understand. Did you see him panicking as you had?"

"I wasn't panicking," came the gruff denial from the older driver.

"Riiight. And I'm the queen of Sheba."

Bonnie snickered, turning to Karr, beckoning Kitt closer. "I need you two to help me with the modifications and the process of which ones are more important than others. We do have to see if we can keep this within a budget."

"But if you go over, you know that we are well able to foot the bill," Devon said, walking in upon Bonnie's words. With a smile, he looked at the young driver and the older one, and then looked at Kitt rolling over to the CPU that housed Karr, stopping inches from the pedestal. With a smile, he turned to Raevyn. "I believe that I have one of your first assignments in mind."

"Well, run it by me and I'll see if it's something that Karr and I can do," came the gracious reply while she rested all her weight upon one hip, the other leg limp.

Watching her cross her arms over her chest while she listened, Devon outlined it, seeing her eyes brighten and sharpen. She grinned and then chuckled. Karr interrupted Bonnie, his voice sharp. "I'm not doing it."

"It'd be fun, Karr. Besides. You can scare people."

Growling deep in the back of his throat, Karr fell silent to listen to Bonnie again. Raevyn nodded. "We'll do it. When are we looking at?"

"In about four weeks. Both Karr _and_ Kitt should have their vehicle upgrades by that point." He smiled and then patted a glaring Michael's shoulder. "Chin up, ol' boy!"

"Devon, you _weasel_, that's not fair to have her start out as driver to do this."

Laughing, Raevyn smiled and looked at the two men, then shook her head and turned to walk towards Kitt and Karr. "Knight, unlike you, I like to dress up and look pretty. Hey, Bonnie! Can you teach me a few things?"

As the two women got to talking, Devon smiled and looked at the elder of the now two operatives that was watching them. "Michael . . . I've had long talks with young Raevyn. Take the chance to get to know her as her, not as just a girl who got caught up in something that she can't control. She has just as much control over the situation as you do, and she has had more than enough control and sense of self than is sometimes necessary. You have seen that, but I feel that you don't want to accept it."

"Devon . . . how can she be so . . . _unaware_ that Karr is a killer?"

Karr was listening, bristling, but didn't give either of the women who were talking with him about his adjustments any indication that what the men were talking about was really getting to him. Kitt almost forcefully shoved at the presence of his elder brother, showing a very rare aggressive side. _::Don'__t you __**dare**__ start snarling at my driver for what he's saying. Think before you speak, Karr. __That's more than what Michael's doing right now.::_

_::So suddenly I have to listen to a younger imitation of me?!::_

_::Do you want to upset your driver? You know quite well how little sleep she has been getting while making sure that you're getting your new body.::_

Karr fell silent in the conversation, and thankfully it wasn't noticed. He knew. He knew. He _was_ a killer . . . but . . . Raevyn knew that he was. Raevyn knew . . . and she still . . . stayed by him. She . . . she always had stayed.

_::Kitt . . . Kitt, I need to get out of here.::_

_::Why? What do you need to run from?::_

_::I'm not running!::__::Then why do you need to get out of here?::_

_::I will be hurt.::_

_::Your programming demands that you run.::_

_::Yes. Kitt, please . . . I need to get out!!!::_

Something prompted Raevyn to rest her hand upon the CPU, and she felt a vibration, one that she hadn't felt before. Looking down at the metal casing, she kept her fingertips upon it to feel the vibration more. His hard-drive was revving too fast. Something was wrong. "Karr, what is it?"

Kitt jerked on his wheels and tuned his scanners upon the woman. How could she have known about the state of mind that Karr was in?!

"It's nothing you would have to worry about," Karr replied in his normal, smooth tones.

"Then why are you . . . nevermind." She brushed her hand over the metal of his CPU, then rested her hand upon it without thinking. Returning her attention to a curious Bonnie, she pretended as if nothing had happened and resumed the conversation.

_::Karr . . .::_

_::Kitt . . . please . . .::_

_::Karr, talk with your driver tonight. She's the only one who __can get you out of here.::_

_::She won't let me . . .::_

_::Talk with her, big brother. Trust me. Please.::_


	6. chapter six

Black Hawk Skimming  
By Sinead

.chapter.six.

"I need to go."

Raevyn looked up from the book she had been reading with a sudden blink. She dog-eared the page and set it aside. "Okay. Where to?"

Karr was silent for almost a full minute as he processed her answer. He had never known her to not question him about something he had said. Once she had learned how to reason back in her teenage years, there was nothing that she didn't at least try to dispute him upon. "You don't care that I have to leave here?"

Standing with a low grown and a wince, the young woman straightened her back out almost painfully before walking over to Karr's pedestal. She had been sitting in what had started out as a comfortable position. "We're partners, Karr." Her hand ghosted over the sensor. "You're my best friend, and you know me better than almost anybody else. Likewise, _I_ know _you_. I knew that you were going to get overwhelmed—"

"I am not overwhelmed!"

"—and I'm sure as hell not gonna stand around and let you stay uncomfortable. If you need to run, then we run. I can go back home." She touched the sensor again, drawing forth an almost-whine from the AI as he trembled within the confines of his CPU, missing the casual way that she would touch him. "I can get a job back home. But I just need a day to get some supplies so that you don't run low on power."

"You . . . you mean it."

"Of course I mean it," she whispered with a kind smile, knowing that while he couldn't see it, Karr could hear it in her voice. "I'm your partner and your best friend, Karr. I'm here to look out for you."

"Even when I'm programmed to look out for myself?"

"Even then."

"Why?"

Pondering over this, Raevyn stroked a circle upon the palm-sized sensor. Karr finally managed to hiss out, "Can't concentrate when you're distracting me like that!"

The young woman blinked, chortled, and leaned down to whisper, "Had you been human, I would have hugged you in apology. I'm sorry." She smiled and rested her hand just beside the sensor. "Why do I look out for you? Because it's part of who I am and what I do. I care about you, Karr. I care about your well-being."

"Of course you should care," Karr said smoothly, trying to cover up his weakness in that Raevyn always knew how to make him unable to process coherent thought. "I've been the one that has half-raised you."

"No . . . because you listened to me and helped me when I needed it," she replied. "All right . . . I'm gonna go and pull together a few things with Bonnie's help so that we can get you situated." Standing, she rested one fingertip upon the sensor and smiled. "You gonna be okay, Karr?"

"You ask me questions that you already know the answer of."

"Just making sure." And with that, she was gone.

Karr "listened" to her footsteps leaving. Almost instantly, Kitt's voice was within his processor. _::What do you fear, Karr?::_

Turning away from the soft grey presence that was his brother, Karr whispered, _::Deactivation. The impression of deactivation.::_

Kitt rolled into the garage past the two shells that they would soon inhabit, and made his way to the podium, resting his prow against it very gently. _::You have refused to __speak about __something.::_

_::I will ever refuse to speak about it.::_

_::Karr, we want the best for you. What lies beyond that fear of deactivation?::_

The almost-too-hot AI, deeper black than space itself, turned towards the calm, soft grey brother. He sighed and he whispered, _::There was an incident that I had temporarily gone off-line while under Raevyn's care.::_

_::Then __why do you want to leave here and go back with her?::_

_::Because she will not allow it to happen again.::_

Kitt fell silent, pondering over this. _::She is already explaining the situation to Bonnie.::_

_::Will the woman let me leave?::_

_::Well, I don't see why not. You don't belong to the company, after all.::_

.o.

Late that night, Michael walked in and winced as he climbed onto Kitt's hood, settling himself with a sigh. They had been on an overnight job the day before, and it had gone almost badly. Michael had a stitched-up knife wound upon his outer left thigh that was going to limit his action considerably for a few weeks. "Maybe you were right about my getting old, Kitt."

"Perhaps."

The answer startled the man but he shrugged it off, resting his hand against the warm black metal of the Trans Am hood. "You're quiet tonight. Usually you'd chew me out for finally making an admission about something like that."

"Am I? Mm. I suppose I am." Kitt's reply was still distant, as he struggled to figure out the enigma that was his elder brother.

"What are you thinking about?"

He was honest. "Karr."

"What about him? I know that they're leaving tomorrow . . ."

"He's afraid."

"Killer Karr?"

"Hush, Michael, he's not like that anymore."

Wincing again and brushing his hand over the black hood, Michael sighed. "I'm sorry, pal. I know that he's not the same AI he had been." The man rested against the windshield, pulling out a PDA that had been forced upon him. He pulled up the schematics of Kitt's new form, and then sighed. "You sure that you wanna change from being a Trans Am to this new Mustang, Kitt? It's not gonna handle even _remotely_ the same way that your current body does."

That got Kitt's full attention. Anything about his upgrade was instantly noteworthy, and any conversation about it was something he personally wanted to know. "I don't see why not. It's a rather slick ride, as you would say. As eye-catching as this car was back when we first started, only with better technology."

"Yeah, but Karr has the newest Trans Am." Michael frowned and sat up, stretching his back with a wince. "Ugh, I'm getting old."

Kitt made a noise of sympathy. "Raevyn will be ready to take over your lighter duties by the time she is out of college. Two more years, Michael, and there will be a third AI that will be able to take over our heavy duties."

". . . our?"

"I do not plan to take upon another driver. I thought this was understood between us."

"It . . . it's just that I never heard you say it so bluntly before."

"Touched?"

". . . not nearly enough. You joker."

"I aim to please, Michael."

"Fine."

Chuckling, Michael looked at the PDA again with a wistful look upon his face. "What will happen with this old shell?"

"I am not sure." Kitt noticed Michael's expression, and he filed it away. Running a scan over the middle-age man, he sighed at the scars of wounds that had been taken on while in the line of fire. He didn't like that his driver had been hurt so many times, but he often bit back the comments that he wanted to say about the risks involved with this job.

"I'm hoping that we can keep it."

Two attentions snapped up at the door. Bonnie stood there, staring out over the part of the estate that could be seen. With a sigh, she turned to look in on the two that were watching her silently, wondering what it was that she was going to do. She smiled a little sadly, then looked out again. Michael slid off of Kitt's hood with a wince and a hissed breath, earning him a concerned warble from his partner. He patted the black paintjob reassuringly before walking up behind Bonnie and embracing her, resting his chin upon her shoulder. "We?"

She was silent, and didn't really know what to say in return to that. With a sigh, the engineer began to pull away, which caused Michael to hold her just that bit tighter. "No . . . no, no, no . . . stay here . . ."

Turning to open her mouth, Bonnie was stalled by the blue eyes that watched her with infinite tenderness. She had never seen that look upon his face before. Smiling, Michael whispered, "Stay forever . . . with me. I know I'm not a great guy . . . but I don't want . . . I won't be in this business for much longer. I'm going to start talking to Devon about looking for a replacement. I—"

Her hand had silenced him, covering his mouth, and a smile danced over her face, her voice filled with tears and happiness. "Hey. Shut up. Yes."

Kitt left silently, riding high upon his wheels.

.o.

"You have something on your mind, and you're distracted. . . . Why are you . . . Raevyn?"

She rested her forehead against the CPU top and let herself breathe shakily. Karr was taken aback. He wanted to ask what the matter was, and he almost reached out to the sensors that viewed the room he was in to see if she had any physical wounds. But he caught himself just in time to murmur softly, "Now, Raevyn . . . Rae, please . . . tears will damage my circuits." His voice lowered even further. "Please don't cry . . . tell me what's wrong."

"Why are you so caring to me when you hate everyone else around you?"

The question startled the AI, and he thought over his answer carefully. With a human-sounding sigh, he replied, "Because of three years ago."

"But . . . but shouldn't that make you want to hate me more?" She stood, pulling the sleeve of her sweatshirt around to her face and rubbing at her eyes.

"To some, yes, it would cause hate. But it was no fault of yours that I neglected to tell you about my rather unique situation. Nor was it your fault that I suffered from my own decision to not tell you about what needed to be done." Pausing, wishing that he could interact with her with more than words, Karr continued. "You fought to keep me from completely going under. And you succeeded."

Her breath caught in her throat as she sobbed, and her hand rubbed over the sensor almost roughly. Karr tuned it back slightly so that it did not hurt so much. She needed the comfort of touch as much as he wanted her to touch him. Were that it was a different situation! His voice lowered and smoothed out as he whispered to comfort her, "Hush . . . hush, now. I'm here."

"Karr . . . I want you in a body."

He sighed, then steeled himself and murmured back reassuringly, "Then I will stay and undergo all the adjustments that have to be done."

"No, you don't understand."

He understood her perfectly. She wanted something she could interact with, and a car was the best way to protect his driver, his other half, a part of _him_ that he needed. "I must differ. I understand that I have to protect you, as you are my partner, however—"

"A _human_ body, Karr."

Karr "swallowed" the rest of his reply. His voice was quiet when he finally spoke. "Then that is the end that we shall be working for. Stay here tonight. I'll call Kitt so that you can sleep in his passenger seat again and the three of us can talk this over."

Raevyn nodded, resting her forehead against the sensor, hating herself.


	7. chapter seven

Black Hawk Skimming  
By Sinead

.chapter.seven.

She was asleep in Kitt's passenger seat, having cried herself into such a state without even telling the two AI present the reason. Kitt sighed in a very humanlike way before addressing his elder brother. "Karr . . . what did she tell you?"

Karr was quiet as he replied. "She . . . she wants me in a human body."

Another sigh, this one quieter, more reverent of the pain that the young woman was inevitably experiencing within her soul. "And you?"

". . . I . . ."

"Your primary programming is preservation of yourself, Karr. You have been running that through your mind the entire last hour, I am positive of that fact." Kitt opened a link between them, causing the blacker, hotter AI to feel the weight of the sleeping college student within the passenger seat. "What is it to you that she wishes to have something special between you two? Will that jeopardize you? Will it cause you great harm?"

The reply was quiet and held none of the usual sarcasm and dark overtures than most of the other replies Karr gave to even his brother. "Only if rejection were to happen, Kitt. Unlike you . . . to be hurt in such a fashion is something that I never wish to experience."

"Understanding human emotions and experiencing them are two totally different things, Karr." Kitt felt the older AI run through his scanners, doing the same as he always did: not even turning the scanners in the direction of the young woman in the passenger seat.

"I understand that . . . but . . . I seem to want to experience it with . . . with her."

"I know, brother. I will support you with whatever decision you make, Karr."

.o.

The day finally came when Karr was going to be installed into the new vehicle. He and Raevyn were alone, and not even the security cameras were on. They hadn't really been able to express any more about what they felt for one another since that day, two weeks before. Kitt had been installed into his new shell earlier in the day, leaving the garage free for Raevyn and Karr to do this privately. He and Michael were off testing the limits of the new Trans Am. Unlike Kitt, who was hardwired in there for security purposes, Karr was meant for a quick-removal, quick-replacement process. Not only was it helpful when Raevyn wanted to bring him up to the dorm room so that he wasn't alone, but it was also for Karr's peace of mind in regards to his self-preservation programming. Rae could yank him out with a fingerprint.

Walking up to the pedestal slowly, Raevyn touched the sensor for a moment.

"It'll be okay . . . you can disconnect me from those wires."

Silently, she did so, then once she pulled the final one, the power cord, she saw lights come to life upon the CPU case, indicating battery life, the amount of processing power that Karr was using, and wireless connections to the new vehicle, the internet, and remote sensors. Studying that for a moment, she rested her fingers upon the sensor while readying herself for this new change in their relationship, so to speak. "Karr . . ."

"What is it, Raevyn?" he whispered back smoothly, calmly.

"I . . . it . . ." closing her mouth, she sighed and shook her head. "No, it's okay."

"Then . . . will you please put me into my body?"

Picking the CPU up and holding him to her chest, the young woman opened the passenger-side door of the black Firebird, sitting and opening the glovebox, reaching into the back to pull down a second flap. Sighing, she brushed her hand over the sensor again, the only real way that she know how to communicate just how much she felt and how much she wanted to say, but was afraid to. Then the young woman aligned the CPU box with the slot that it would fit into, very careful so as not to hit the sensor. Once he was a quarter of the way in, the automatic mechanical reactions took over, pulling the CPU into a precise alignment before plugging Karr into the system.

The dashboard lights turned on, one row after another, moving steadily.

His voice was deeper, almost more feral, but . . . also . . . more relaxed. He was protected within what was essentially a vehicle that could not be penetrated. "Please step out and come to my prow."

Following his request, closing the passenger door, Raevyn came to stand before the black car, watching as the golden scanner flickered and then came to life, running smoothly from one side to the other and back again while the AI remained silent.

He was silent because he finally saw Raevyn.

She was . . . beautiful.

Standing at five-foot-seven, Raevyn Starwalker was willowy, but with a wiry build that showed strength that belied her apparent thin woman's figure. She was thin, and due to athletic mannerisms, had virtually no body fat. Her face was almost elvish, having a very gypsy look about it, her cheeks pink, contrasting against the porcelain-pale complexion. Her golden-amber-hazel eyes were darting around the scanner, the car, trying to discern what it was that Karr was doing. The movements of her gaze were exaggerated by the naturally very-black eyelashes. Her wavy-curly black hair hung loose around her shoulders in layers that, in their longest length, would reach almost exactly to the middle of her back. Red highlights flickered to life within the midnight curls when she moved her head even the slightest. Freckles were rare upon her arms and face.

"You're beautiful."

The pink in her cheeks darkened to almost a complete red, and Raevyn whispered, "Thank you."

Igniting the engine with an excited snarl, Karr revved it before laughing in deep, mysterious tones, and he shifted around, causing the rear wheels hitch upwards slightly, then drop back down again. Letting the idle take over, the black machine just oozed smug appeal for one long moment while Karr found were all the rest of the connections were. Once that was done, he saw Raevyn's eyes . . . saw them glistening. She was afraid that he was going to leave without her.

He popped not the passenger door, but the driver's side door.

"Let me bring you places that you've never seen before, Rae."

The young woman walked to the door, her hand tracing it while she rounded the end, then slid into the seat. Karr carefully left the garage. Once his rear wheels hit the pavement, he gave a satisfied growl of both his voice and now his engine.

Peeling out, the AI brought his driver for her first ride.

And something inside him melted and softened when he heard her laugh of glee when he did tricks for her.

He was never going to leave her behind. Never. She was his driver, an intrinsic part of who he now was, essential for his well-being and peace of mind. Since Raevyn was now considered his, and his alone, then she came under his self-preservation programming, a part of him that now laughed darkly at his thinking upon the matter.

To preserve himself and his sanity, Raevyn would have to be protected at all costs.

Coming to his conclusion, he focused upon talking with her, instructing her with what all the buttons and screens did.

They played long into the early hours of the morning.

.o.

Another week later had the first assignment.

"If one meatbag touches my polish, I'm gonna—"

"You're going to let me take care of it," Raevyn said smoothly as she finished getting ready. A prototype "walkaround" was housing sensors that Karr had patched into his range, and it was watching the young woman as she put the finishing touches upon her face for the charity ball. Her gown wasn't a simple black dress, but it was indeed black, it had a nice cut and style that clung to her upper body and what little there was to her bust, then flared out nicely around her hips to end at knee-length, with tulle peaking out under the satin. The straps that arched over her shoulders were small, and a thin string of simple pearls rested delicately upon her sculpted collarbone, matched by simple pearl stud earrings. Her shoes were low heels that she would be able to remove while she was sitting at the table.

Looking at her hair, she sighed. Curls had decided to invade instead of the usual waves.

"I don't understand why you seem so despondent. By all human standards, you look absolutely stunning."

Blinking, then blushing, Raevyn smiled and turned in a circle, smiling. "You think so?"

"I like black on you."

"You like black on you, too, goose."

". . . I thought that we spoke about how illogical it is to call me a goose, Miss Starwalker."

Smiling, she reached over to the modified Qrio that Sony had made for them in return for allowing two of their top artificial intelligence scientists to come over and watch Kitt. What the man and the woman didn't realize was that Kitt took it upon himself to teach them about what they were doing wrong in their home country in regard to technology, and why they weren't really ready to develop one of their own AIs unless they changed a few things.

What blew them away was Kitt speaking to them not in English, which they had mastered long ago, but in their native tongue while Michael was sitting on his trunk, doing assignment work and occasionally breaking into the conversation to ask Kitt details on a case here or there.

Raevyn had watched that, and while they had approached her and Karr to talk with them, she declined, saying that Kitt and Michael were the better partners to watch. They didn't understand, since they knew Karr was the older of the two AIs, but acknowledged her wishes anyway.

Reaching down to pick the small robot up, she smiled at hearing the second Qrio, an actual one and not just a shell of one, wake up and ask for attention, too. In Japanese. Smiling, she reached down and touched the simple robot's head, holding her hand out for the little one to take and hold onto, smiling at the very simple AI that had been developed. "Karr . . . Do you think that Devon and the corporation heads of Knight Industries are beginning to form an alliance with the Japanese for a reason?"

"Yes. As you have doubtless have studied about the Japanese, they all but breathe robots. In their obsession with mechanical beings, they have made great progress. So far, however, they have been working only with limited-intelligence programs." Karr's Qrio tipped its head to one side curiously. Raevyn noticed it, seeing that it was an unconscious movement.

She chuckled, cutting him off. "But they have robots that can walk. Can they make androids that look completely human, can walk, and can house an advanced AI?"

"I would like to find out."

"Me too." Smiling, she turned to the real Qrio. "Shiro, go recharge."

Shiro, the little robot barely two feet tall, walked over to his recharge station and sat down upon it. Raevyn put the Qrio shell in the second recharge station, whispering, "Be right down."

The lights around the eyes of the small robot dimmed and went out. Grabbing her purse, Raevyn walked down to the pair of black cars, seeing Michael and Bonnie standing in front of Kitt, the red scanner calmly and smoothly going back and forth. Karr was sitting patiently, quietly, for the young woman to come up and stand beside him. They were going to leave, go get something small to snack on, then return fashionably late.

So with conspiratorial grins, that's just what they did.


	8. chapter eight

Black Hawk Skimming  
By Sinead

_**IMPORTANT NOTE AT THE BOTTOM THAT YOU **__**MUST**__** READ! THANK YOU!**_

.chapter.eight.

_::Look at them . . . look how they're waiting for__ you,__ Kitt.::_

_::Not for long. You are the elder; please proceed before me.::_

Kitt took over control of the vehicle, slowing it down in view of the gathered guests while Karr, golden scanner blazing brightly, swung around him and came to a halt before Devon gracefully, smoothly, and without sending up a single stone to clatter painfully against the feet of those behind the man. Kitt came up as well, Michael and Bonnie getting out of the younger AI while Karr deliberated upon releasing his driver. She was gripping the wheel fiercely for one long moment before sighing and reaching for the handle. "Karr, it's now or never."

"I know. I just . . ."

"I will be fine, Karr," she whispered, brushing her hand over the dashboard, safe behind the tinted glass.

"You will be stared at."

"I know."

"I don't like that."

Smiling, falling silent, Raevyn just sat for a moment more while Devon introduced Michael, Bonnie, and Kitt to those who were new supporters to the Foundation. He turned just as Raevyn was getting out of the second car, closing the door with a soft click. Everyone was staring, whispering at the youngness of the woman, her youthful manner and mannerisms. She moved gracefully to the prow of the black car, then rested her hand upon it, her face serious, and devastatingly beautiful in its solemnity.

Devon had never seen her in this state of mind, this poised, unblinking, firm and yet looking so capable. She was something else entirely at this point, and his smile was gentle, kind. "Ladies, gentlemen, I wish to reintroduce to you the original Knight Industries AI: the Knight Automated Roving Robot; Karr."

A few people, those who had been with the Foundation right from the beginning, took a step back from the stern-looking young woman and Karr. Devon noticed, smiled at them, and then held his hand out for the young woman. "This is his driver, his partner. May I introduce an honorary member of the Knight family, Raevyn Walker."

The new benefactors smiled and nodded their heads respectfully, the older benefactors' heads nodding in greeting hesitantly a split-second later. She nodded in return, and as soon as the benefactors were distracted with who they were standing beside and how much money the other person had, Raevyn turned to look at Devon. "Excuse me, but 'Walker'?"

"Starwalker is not quite a professional name."

"Professional or not, it's still my name!" she hissed, her face getting pink with anger. "I did _not_ give you permission to shorten my last name, Mister Miles!"

Michael walked over and rested his fingertips upon Raevyn's shoulder, whispering, "Come back and talk with me for a moment, let Bonnie charm the benefactors." Without waiting for a response, he tucked her arm under his, leading her back to a reflection pool with the air of a mentor and his student. She opened her mouth to snarl something, but the man cut her off gently. "My name isn't Michael Knight. I wasn't born into the family. I'm not Wilton Knight's son. I was born Michael Long. I had been shot in the head, metal plate deflected the bullet, but it all but obliterated my face. Wilton Knight took me in, gave me a new face and identity."

"But . . ."

"Rae, baby, listen to me on this: They're going to need someone who sounds firm while you train to be an employee. You don't need to be an operative like I am." He smiled, brushing the curls away from her face tenderly, like a big brother. "Karr is reformed, and you have been the key to that reformation." He turned to face her, his blue gaze completely serious for the first time since he had met this young woman around whom he enjoyed laughing around. "You knew that Knight Industries couldn't develop a third AI until Karr was either brought under control, or destroyed. Because until this point, there was only a fifty percent success rate with the AI development and programming."

"And now . . . there's a full one-hundred-percent success rate." Raevyn sighed and almost rubbed at her face, but remembered that she had makeup on and stopped just in time. Looking up at the man that she saw as an elder brother, she whispered, "Is that all that I am to the Foundation, too? Just another success story? Another phoenix rising?"

"Do you see yourself as such?"

"No!"

"Then you're not. It's as simple as that, Rae." Michael shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged. "You're a different kind of operative. Not one like me, who is constantly getting my butt handed back to me." He turned to look at the reflection pool. "Karr is not Kitt. Karr will never be like Kitt. But you and Karr have drawn close to each other as partners for a reason. I don't know what it is, and I'll admit that he still scares the pee outta me, Rae." Looking over his shoulder at the severe young woman, he whispered, "But you've never been intimidated by him. C'mon. Kitt's getting nervous about all the people looking at him."

"How do you know?"

Holding his arm out, smiling as Raevyn took it, Michael whispered, "Because I know my best friend, and I don't like to see him uncomfortable."

"Oh. Well. I should mingle just to make Karr snarky, in that case."

"And add murder to insult?"

"Isn't that supposed to be 'injury to insult,' Mister Knight?"

"Not when it's Karr."

.o.

_::Kitt . . . I believe that if Raevyn does not return soon . . .::_

_::They are on their way back. Have patience, brother.::_

_::You know full well that's not my strong suit!::_

Smooth, familiar hands soothed Karr directly after he had said that. Able to "feel" the skin of his vehicle, the AI knew Raevyn's touch, and the low, barely perceptible vibration of his growl stilled. Her fingers traced over his side, across the driver's side door, ending above his fender while she moved to his prow, sitting upon his hood possessively in a such a feminine manner, addressing a young man, a newblood multi-millionaire, with a charming but cold smile. "Karr doesn't like fingerprints upon his paintjob, and I dislike having to work at getting them off."

"Oh, well I'm sure that it wouldn't be too hard for you to . . . shall we say, _acquire_ help?" He leaned against Karr, who ignited his engine and jerked backwards. Raevyn had been ready for that, her hands having been upon the hood, her palms and fingers gripping very slightly at the shell. The young man looked shocked, scandalized.

"I am all the help Karr will ever want, need, or accept. He is not like Kitt." Chuckling, she patted the hood. "Karr, Devon will chew me out if you move. And your black voice coming from a cute little walkaround robot doesn't help your image and reputation any."Reluctantly, Karr went back to the exact place that his wheels had rested in just seconds before. "If Devon even _breathes_ against you, he will have to answer to _me_."

Glancing into her purse, the young woman frowned and walked back to the driver's side to sit and look to be going through the glove compartment while she spoke quietly to the AI. "You know how he addressed me."

"I do not like the shortening of your name, Raevyn."

"I thought so. But Michael spoke to me about it. We'll talk more about it later. Just don't freak out if someone calls me by it when you're around, please."

"Did you forget something?"

Making a face that the young man wouldn't see because of tinted glass, Raevyn growled, "Save me from the idiots."

"I would had those Japanese scientists have hurried up with their production of a real body for me."

The usage of the phrase "real body" caught the young driver's attention, and she looked at the dashboard with barely-concealed shock for a half-second before whispering, "I'll get on their case."

"Miss Walker?"

"Kid, don't you have someone else to latch onto and suck the life out of?" Raevyn snapped, standing up out of the car and glaring at the now-astonished young man. She snorted, turned her head, and spat, then turned back to see his face with an amusingly slightly-green look. Smirking, she swaggered over to Kitt, saying, "Keep an eye on Karr, please. Don't let him kill anyone, okay?"

"I don't see why he would listen to me in the first place, Raevyn, but I do promise to do my best. If you see Michael, tell him that he owes me for many past humiliations."

Giving the Mustang a thumbs-up, she walked into the mansion with her head high and her golden gaze not completely cold, but professionally distant. Kitt let a smirk into his voice. "Well. You sure know how to woo the ladies, Mister Jamison. I suggest that you not try to get onto Rae's good side. It's full."

"Y . . . yeah."

.o.

"Now I know why you hate those things."

Both drivers were lounging upon the hoods of their respective cars, looking up at the stars with a paper cup of hot beverage close to hand. Bonnie had gone home early from the "after party," but not without a kiss for the man who was courting her, and a congratulatory hug for Raevyn upon attending her first promotional ball, and upon keeping Karr from running some poor schmuck over.

"What, specifically, changed your mind? Was it the food? The company? The fact that we're gonna have hell to shine the boys?"

Karr growled loudly at Michael, but Raevyn's tired half-chuckle calmed him. Her voice was low, raspy from talking too much and too long to people that she didn't like. "The boys throwing themselves at me with the intent to rise higher . . . the people who didn't think that the AIs were anything more than a voice-recognition program . . ."

"You get used to those."

"Devon dragging me all over creation to meet _this_ benefactor or _that_ council member."

"Yeah. You never get used to that."

"Can you say awkward?"

"Unnecessary," Karr growled before silencing himself. Raevyn was absently dragging her fingers around on his shell on the side that was away from the elder driver, her mind far away.

"Rae-baby?"

"Yeah, Mike?"

"You're gonna make a good operative, if you choose to be one."

Turning her head to look at the man staring up at the sky, the young woman whispered, "You think so?"

"Yeah . . . wouldn't have you do all my work, but . . . you would do very well with the more delicate situations."

Looking back up at the sky, Raevyn put one hand up behind her neck with a deep breath. "Maybe someday, Michael."

.o.

_**Author's Note:**__ This has become a monster at eight chapters already! Thank you for all who are reading this, and a big thank you for everyone who's reviewed. I just ask for __ONE THING__: Please don't leave a "This is great, update soon!" review. Personally, I find that insulting. If you really read this, find something that you like and __leave a message about it, or if you're an experienced writer in this genre, let me know what __I can do to make this better!__I don't mean to be picking on anyone, but please:_

_**Do not leave a review that will just take up **__**needed **__**space in my inbox. Give me something to think about!**_

_Thank you, and if you don't want to continue reading "Black Hawk Skimming" because of my request to __review in a fashion not unlike Deviantart where someone will give a well-rounded review upon why they like a picture or what could be done better about it, then that's your choice. I'm writing this for my personal enjoyment._

_"Have a nice day." -Walter_


	9. chapter nine

Black Hawk Skimming  
By Sinead

.chapter.nine.

"I'm gonna _kill_ him, bring him back to life, have you run over him, back up to make sure you hit him, then run over him _again_, and then hand him over to Michael to play with!"

Karr, for once, was the one who wasn't threatening the life of some living being. He was just snickering in a dark manner at the tirade that the young woman was going off about as she systematically ripped apart the roses that had arrived and stomped on them before spitting onto the mess. "I am sure that Michael will take great pleasure out of scaring the brat."

"Scaring him? Merely scaring him? Give me a break!" Grumbling and kicking a pebble across the grass, Raevyn sighed and shoved her hands into her pockets with a huff. "Karr, there's only so much I can take. Two dozen roses a day, one to the garage, one to the mansion? That's ridiculous!"

"The boy _is_, as you say, swimming in money."

"Karr, not helping."

"Just stating a fact, Raevyn."

Sighing and falling silent, sitting against Karr's fender, she looked in at the dashboard, but then looked out over the small lake on another property that abutted the Knight estate. Then, without a word, she turned and walked away from Karr.

.o.

Michael had his head under Kitt's hood while he worked on flushing out the mechanical fluids as a way to just care for his partner. Thankfully, the Mustang's engine was made in such a way that it was closer to a real engine than when it was a whole lot of computer technology and a little bit of horsepower that grew over the years. "Michael . . ."

"Yes?"

"What if Raevyn and Karr . . ."

"You mean if the Japanese are able to make the android?"

"Yes."

Pulling his hands free and wiping them off on a cloth, the operative walked to the workbench and opened a bottled water that Bonnie had left for him before she had gone to work on something that she had tried to explain to him. Michael had simply leaned in and kissed her gently to remind her that while he had brains, he didn't have _her_ specific level of intelligence. Sipping on the liquid, the man sighed. "If they do as I think that they will . . . if it all works out, pal, I think that we're going to be looking at a whole new way of how the Foundation works.""Do you want them to change the way how things are?"

Pausing to look at his partner, the man asked, "What are you asking by that?"

Kitt took a moment to process his partner's reply, then replied in a very quiet voice, "The option of being able to protect you as a car or as an android, to be your partner under cover with you, or to have _you_ wait in the car and understand the tension and agony when you hear gunshots and then nothing else for a full three minutes . . ."

Walking up to rest his hands on the hood, then moving his left hand deep into the back of the engine block to touch a smooth box that was hidden in such a way so as not to be conspicuous. It was the cover around the CPU to protect it. Both the MBS and nano-technology were employed in the protection. Kitt made a startled noise, but settled quickly. "I wish you wouldn't _do_ that to me, Michael."

"What, find your CPU and touch it?"

"You make it sound so dirty when it's really nothing. You humans and your constant innuendoes." Kitt sighed. "No, I mean go and do that _without warning_."

"I'm sorry about every time that I've scared you, pal. I honestly am."

"I know. We're partners, and it's a high-risk job."

"Not much longer until we're retired, old boy."

"You haven't answered my question."

"I'm waiting until you're ready to hear me out about it. You don't like me to say things unless I mean them." Pulling his hand free and patted the fender reassuringly before walking over to get some new coolant, the Knight inheritor opened the radiator up and poured the antifreeze in carefully.

"Well, I'm listening now." Kitt wanted to know what his partner had to say about it.

Going silent and replacing the coolant cap, Michael set the gallon of green liquid to one side, sealed, before reaching up and pulling the hood down to carefully close over the engine block. He leaned his hands upon the metal that never went cold. "Kitt . . . I can't make a decision of that caliber for you. That's something that you, yourself, have to decide upon. Whatever you choose, that's up to you, and I'll support you all the way. You're my partner, but you're also my best friend, and nothing, no version of body you have, will ever change that."

The front end of the car raised up slightly, pushing up against Michael's hands in silent affirmation and thanks of that statement. An angry engine roaring interrupted their talk as Karr snarled his way into his place in the garage. Michael blinked, but moved out of the way quickly when Kitt said very quietly, "This might get ugly. . . . Michael, I'll take care of this."

"What do you mean 'ugly'?"

"You might call it a high level of ugly, Michael. I just hacked into the security cameras, and Raevyn literally shoved all contact with Karr out her bedroom door. Something happened, but . . . I don't know what." Rolling over to his elder brother, Kitt didn't say anything more. He just seemed to hover before the other AI.

Abruptly, Karr synched up with Kitt, going through the familiar backdoor patterns and shocking the younger AI at the ease in which he infiltrated his systems. Shock, and something akin to fear raced through Kitt, and he boarded up defenses around himself and his most sensitive programming, peeking out over the walls cautiously to see a very bewildered, terrified inky presence not even paying attention to what Kitt had done. Leaving the defenses up around programming but allowing his conscious to move freely, Kitt came over the wall and reached tendrils of himself out, looking for mental injuries. He found them, fresh, almost festering in their agony.

The silvery, cool AI pulled the hot, black one into a tighter synch, almost to the point of melding consciousnesses, but stopping just short of that point. Karr clung to him, showing the fear that he would show no other, not even Raevyn.

Kitt sighed and whispered, _Show me._

Images of the man courting Raevyn ran through their synch, things that he had recorded when Raevyn didn't know. Reactions that she had done that Karr had cross-referenced again and again with psychological research, the results of that referencing . . . it all just ran together in a steady stream of self-induced pain.

_::You love her, Karr.::_

_::In what way I __am able_

Kitt pulled back a little, then murmured, _::You fear that she is considering him as a possibility for a partner.::_

_::Yes.::_

_::Have you told her this?::_

Karr trembled with agony, which Kitt took as a "no." Sighing deeply, he pulled himself out of how deep the synch was to speak with his driver. "Michael, I need you to have a talk with Devon. He will listen to you on this case."

"That must mean that it's something serious, pal."

"Very serious. Tell him that I think it's time for Project Kairos to be put into action."

"No!" Karr snarled, trying to pull free from where Kitt had pinned him, but not wanting to damage precious electronics. "No, I won't have you do that!"

"I will be undergoing the same project, Karr, stop moving and stop thinking that way before you hurt yourself."

"I don't care what happens to me, but don't have _her_ go through that!"

Both Kitt and Michael froze at hearing that statement. Kitt whispered, "But that goes against your very basic programming."

_"I don't care!"_ Karr shrieked, his entire frame shuddering. "Don't initiate it! Please! Don't!"

"Why, Karr?"

"It will hurt her!"

"But it . . . Karr, don't you understand the long-term effects of it?"

"Yes! But it will _hurt her_. She is part of me! I will not let you hurt _me_."

Devon was standing above the scene upon the old and rarely-used catwalk. He had seen almost the entire sequence of events, watching in complete awe at how Kitt handled his brother. His voice was warm in the quiet that followed Karr's statement. "Karr . . . Project Kairos is something meant to help both halves of the partnership. The initial stage will have some pain, yes, but the following stages—"

"No! No, no, _no_!"

"Karr, at least give me a reason!"

The anguished wail broke the old man's heart "She will see me as the killer! Just like everyone else did! Just like they still do! I saw them at the fundraiser ball! They fear me! _She_ will fear me!"

Raevyn was on the other side of the door, listening to all that. The tears were streaming down her face as she heard his pain, his fear that he didn't show her. The fear that he could only show to those who could fix it, and those who had been there since the beginning. It hurt that she wasn't the one who could help him with that. Even if he was trying to protect her, it still hurt.

"Have you told her of your past?" Devon asked quietly as he walked down the small spiral staircase.

Karr's engine whined. "Parts of it. I don't want to talk about this!"

"You're acting just as you had when you first on-lined, Karr. Step back and think about this from your present mindset. Please . . . trust us in knowing that we just want the best interest for you both."

Raevyn's voice rang out. "Then why not tell us what that interest is, Devon?"

Karr revved his engine and went to ram Kitt, who didn't move an inch and had braced for it. Shuddering, Karr sank upon his wheels, his engine stuttering to a halt. Having wiped her tears and hardened her heart until such a time that she could cry with Karr, Raevyn walked down the stairs behind Devon. He sighed, and turned so that he could see her. "Because I hadn't even thought of it until Kitt brought it back up. It's a project that was buried because of lack of technology."

"But you were considering it _now_, looking at Karr while he's in that state, and you're talking about it as if it's a definite when _I_ have almost final say or do over what happens to him?" She snorted, popped her knuckles, then walked over to Karr. "Open up. We're going back to the campus. I'm not tolerating this kind of treatment."

Kitt slowly rolled out of the way as Karr hesitated, then popped open his door. His voice was quiet, for her alone once she sat in the driver's seat and closed the door after her. He left at a decent pace from the garage. "Do you need anything from your room?"

"Yeah."

"I . . . I would never run off on you. I would always come back."

Rubbing her hands along the steering wheel, the young woman sighed and nodded. "I know."

Stopping at the front door of the mansion, Karr let Raevyn get out. She was back within five minutes, the remote Qrio held by its handle on its back in one hand, her clothing and laptop bags over her shoulders, and the recharger for the small robot in the other hand. Once she was settled and they were off the Knight property, Karr asked, "What about the other robot?"

"Left it with Bonnie."

"I'm glad."

"Why?"

Karr sighed and rumbled, "Because now I have you to myself again. I missed it being just us."

"You buttering me up?"

"Never. Just the truth."

"Good. I missed it."

"I'm sorry . . ."

"Don't be."

Silence reigned within the interior of the car until they were on the highway, halfway between the Knight mansion and her dormitory. Then, with a very ragged and tired sigh, the young woman whispered, "Karr . . . I . . ."

Hearing her pause for a longer length than normal, the AI whispered, "You want to go back."

"No! No . . . not yet. Not until we figure out what to do with FLAG." Pulling her black hair into a ponytail, she tied it up, holding her breath. Releasing it with a big sigh, the young woman whispered, "I love you."


	10. chapter ten

Black Hawk Skimming  
By Sinead

_**Author's Note:** I know that this is short, but I couldn't add more without it being super-long. The next chapter is currently being written, and I'm one page into it. Enjoy!_

* * *

.chapter.ten.

The dorm building loomed in its old architectural glory around the two young women that walked through the halls towards a single-person room. With a sigh, Raevyn looked to the summer RA who was finishing up extra courses over the short term. The young woman smiled. "You're serious about this? You know that it's a huge responsibility, and people will be angry with you about things that you'll do, and what you'll been asked to do and have no control over."

"I know. But I really want to do this."

"It's because you hate your roomie, isn't it." The RA laughed, crossing her arms over her chest and grinned. Her room was open to Raevyn at all times because of this young woman who really didn't have any sense of respect for someone else's personal space in a room, and had often rummaged through Raevyn's belongings. There were often days that Raevyn would end up going to school and seeing her roommate wearing an article of her clothing.

Entering the room and leaving the door open for the RA to come in behind her, the young woman put her keys down upon the desk. "No, it's because I've got a job that will have me leave valuables in a room, and the RAs have the most secure rooms. Not only that, but it's because I want to learn how to be responsible for people." Raevyn smiled as the Qrio activated from its "sleep" to walk over and look up at her. She crouched down, smiling.

The RA joined her, reaching her hand out to touch the top of the small white robot's head. "I've only heard about these."

"I'm working with a company that made an alliance with Sony."

"Good money in it?"

"Decent enough."

"I'll talk with the women's department and recommend you for the RA position. If you're working with something that's got you one of _these_, and I'm as big a Japanophile as you are, then you're gonna need that extra lock that the school refuses to put on any of the other doors." Standing, the woman mock-saluted and left the room, closing the door after her.

Sitting on the floor and watching as the Qrio came up to lean against her crossed legs, Raevyn asked, "Are you doing okay?"

"Mm. I forgot how I enjoyed the sunlight hitting my roof."

"I know, I know . . . you want me to come out and sunbathe with you."

"Yes."

She stood and changed quickly into cooler clothing, walking out of her room and locking the door behind her. Walking down to her car, she smiled and threw her towel over his hood, climbing up and putting an earbud into her ear, hearing the tail-end of Karr humming softly. He stopped, then seemed to clear his throat as Raevyn settled herself upon the warmed metal.

"Raevyn."

"Mm?"

Karr's voice was low, very quiet. "I miss Kitt."

The young woman threw her arms over her face. "I do too."

.o.

Devon and Michael sat with Kitt, but the air around the trio was decidedly unhappy and unfriendly. Bonnie walked over to them and wiping her hands off on an old rag before leaning against the black paintjob. "What's going on?" Feeling Kitt vibrate, the closest he would ever get to a growl, she smoothly stepped away as if nothing had transpired. The AI was _not_ a happy camper.

The men looked up at her, then away from both her and each other. They had just finished an argument about what they were going to do about Karr and Raevyn. They disagreed on two major points, and as Michael carried the last name "Knight" and was part of the council that made the decisions about operations and how the Foundation was going to continue, he had say over what was going to happen, and his words had been weighed by the men and women that held council seats. They knew the rules; he broke them on the field when they proved to be only words and proved to be ineffective tools.

"Okay, what's the argument this time?"

"Conditions concerning if Raevyn returns," Michael growled, turning to enter Kitt's driver's seat and turning the engine on. By the snarl of it, Kitt was also angry. They started moving before Devon could push himself off of the car, causing Bonnie to grab his arm. With a sigh, she looked at the older man. "Lemme guess. Project Kairos."

"Partially, yes," came the glowering reply.

She nodded, more of a twitch, really, then pulled her phone out, calling Kitt up and half-order him back to the garage. With a bit of persuasion on her behalf to Michael, and after another five minutes, they returned. Bonnie had kept Devon from leaving. When they all were back in the garage, and now even Kitt was annoyed with her, the woman asked, "Do you want Kairos to go into action with Raevyn and Karr?"

"It'll make things better for them."

"Then why don't _you two_ test it." And with that, she glared at them and crossed her arms over her chest. "If _you two_ are so hot for getting them to participate in the Kairos Project, then why don't _you two_ go and do it yourself!"

Devon turned to look at Michael and Kitt. Michael was bristling. "We have private minds! It's not the same as Karr and Raevyn!"

"It's _exactly_ the same, with the cutting difference being that she is a woman, you're a man, and she and Karr are attracted to each other's minds and souls! That's _all_! That's the _only_ difference! You two are mirrors of each other, you and Raevyn, then Kitt and Karr!" Storming up a bit closer to her lover and the car, she whispered harshly, "Don't force it upon her if you don't want it done to you yourself. Don't you _dare_ try to assume that she would be open to something that _you're_ not!"

With that, she turned and left the men and the AI in a stunned silence.

.o.

Raevyn stretched, hearing her cell phone ring. Without looking at the number, knowing just by the ring, she opened it, her voice tired and angry. "What."

There was a sigh on the other end of the phone, and Michael's voice was quiet. "Raevyn, I wanted to apologize for being stupid. Kitt's apologized to Karr last night, right after we got chewed out by Bonnie. We were being stupid, and we had the idea that Kairos would be different for you than it would be for me and Kitt."

"So . . . now you expect that I'll be prancing back to FLAG? Just because you said that you're sorry for trying to force something upon me and Karr?" She was still very angry at the whole thing, and she still didn't like the idea of coming back to the Knight estate.

The man's voice went lower, quieter. "No. I know that you won't come back until you're good and ready." He drew in a deep breath, then said softly, "Kairos is being put on the back burner with the discussion open to retiring the project."

"Good."

"So . . . uhm . . ."

"Dinner at seven, down at that sub shop on the beach." She made the decision quickly, smiling at how he was really trying to find the words for something so simple as saying "you were right."

"I'll be there. Promise."

"Bring Kitt. I'll see you there."

"Definitely."

They hung up, and Raevyn looked up at the Qrio with a smile, opening her mouth to say something. That was when she noticed that it seemed to be frozen, the color for "warning" or "mechanical failure" around the cameras that passed as its eyes. ". . . Karr?"

Nothing.

Grabbing her bag and keys, she darted out of the room and down to her car, to the AI, unlocking the door and getting in. "Karr?!"

Still nothing. She looked at the screen down on the console beside the steering column, seeing a message written there. Her heart almost stopped at the words.

_**something crash. need flag. help me!**_


	11. chapter eleven

Black Hawk Skimming  
By Sinead

.chapter.eleven.

She was driving manually, speeding. The first few Police cars followed her for a few moments and ran the license plate up ultimately fell back once they got the government message that this was a car sanctioned to run at any speed. She was on a headset, having dialed Bonnie on her way towards the Knight estate, unable to cry yet. She didn't want to cry while driving.

"That's all the message was!"

"Is he responding to anything?"

"No! Bonnie, _what happened_?!"

"I won't know until you come here." Her calm tone was professional as she ran through the possibilities in her mind, doing her best to keep Raevyn calm while she drove. "How far away are you and what's your speed?"

"I'm two miles, at a hundred in a sixty zone. I just got an escort with me."

"They asking you to pull over?"

"No. They had me on their radio frequencies and asked where I was going, and how severe the emergency was. That was just before I called you." She signaled that she had to take the next exit, and they shifted over, guiding the black new Trans-Am to the outside of the three lane highway, then took over the road that they got off of, one car going way ahead to clear the road, the others staying before and behind the black shell.

"I have everything ready. You come straight to the garage. Kitt's communicating the plan to your escort as we speak. They'll fall back once you hit the gate, which will be open. If it isn't, we can replace it."

"I see it. It isn't. Police are breaking off."

"Break it."

"Jerkface," she growled under her breath as she spun the wheel, sliding the car to line up with the entrance and then floored it, going through the gate like it was aluminum, and continuing up the drive. The guard at the gate never listened to Kitt. She saw Devon and Michael outside the garage, Kitt inside and she could tell that he had locked himself down right in front of the really sensitive equipment to protect it. Hitting the breaks, Raevyn brought the car to a full stop less than a foot away from Kitt's door. He backed up quickly, and Raevyn pulled up in the specifically-designed berth for Karr, popping the hood, turning the engine off, and getting out while Bonnie dove into the passenger seat, pulling the CPU out quickly to hook it up into the diagnostic.

"Why the crap did I just open the hood?" Raevyn asked herself, hearing Michael come up behind her, resting his hand on her shoulder. She looked up to him, and saw the concern upon his face.

"Because you're worried, and that's how we had to get at Kitt's CPU sometimes. Rae-baby, are you okay?"

That's all it took for her to break down and cling to the man who acted as an elder brother, feeling him wrap his arms securely around her while Bonnie concentrated upon finding out what had crashed, and what needed to be done with Karr. Kitt nosed up beside Raevyn's legs, coming up to just press his prow against her knees softly with a very gentle and unhuman keen of concern and worry. Michael looked down at his partner, then scooped the young woman 

up and sat her upon the warm hood, going up beside her to embrace her again. He knew that Kitt had wanted to comfort her somehow, and the easiest way to do that was to be on or in the AI's shell.

Still shaking with her sobs, Raevyn clung to Michael, worried about Karr, worried about what could happen . . . worried about if it was irreparable damage. She heard Bonnie say something, and Kitt reply, but couldn't make out the words. All she felt was the man who acted as her big brother holding her and kissing the top of her head, hearing his voice murmuring things that made no sense.  
"Kitt, he's in there, but something's wrong. Can you safeguard your CPU and yourself enough to go in and find him?" Bonnie was bent over the diagnostic machine, her gaze gemlike as she studied the readout.

"Of course."

.o.

Scared . . .

Sssssccccccccaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeedddddddd!!

There had been some fatal error that was slowly edging closer to Karr's programming and consciousness. It was blank. There was something not there that was there and it was coming closer, and it was close to touching his memory . . . no . . . NO!!

Cringing back again, Karr "heard" a rush of something, then a heavy noise.

And then there was peace. Silence. No growl of the-thing-that-was-not-there.

_:__:__Brother . . . we need to get you out of this CPU.:__:_

The inky, hot presence turned its attention to the silvery, cool one of Kitt, yelping his name while moving quickly to cling to him, feeling himself surrounded by the tender presence. He knew that he was acting weak, but he had been scared! _:__:__But what about my memory?:__:_

Forwarding the message to Bonnie, Michael and Raevyn, he got his answer back shortly. _:__:I will be password-protecting the recent parts, but your old memory, up until the point where you had been destroyed, will still be integrated with you.:__:_

_:__:__I won't remember Rae?__:__:_ His voice was worried, shaking. This had really hit close, coming back to the point of where he feared he would be deleted.

_:__:Not until we return your memory to you, and synch it up. She is fine with this.:__:_

_:__:__Can I ask her if she is?:__:_

Kitt held his brother closer, giving him access to his speakers. _:__:__Of course.:__:_

.o.

"He's alive." Kitt's voice was relieved, and it brought more sobs to Raevyn, this time of relief, Michael kept his hold upon her, rocking her lightly back and forth. Kitt continued. "There's some sort of . . . _something_ eating away at his CPU, and so far it's only broken down his control over his shell and all communication. I've put up blocks and passwords over everything that I can."

"Good. I've got a second CPU ready for transfer, but there isn't the same amount of memory that his current CPU has. If you save all of his current memory data and transfer it out to the mainframe computer, triple-encode it with your personal touch so that nobody can break into the file." She was setting up a secure wireless connection that was scanning viruses actively with Kitt so that nothing from Karr's CPU would come through. "Raevyn? I need your input on this."

Sniffling, the young woman looked up at Bonnie, rubbing at her face. "Yeah?"

"Can you handle Karr being his old self again? I can transfer most of his old memories, but I need to keep room for new memory while I design a new CPU, but—"

"If it saves him, do it," Raevyn interrupted, not wanting to waste time, her eyes red and tears still falling.

Kitt followed her voice up with his own. "Karr wants to talk with you briefly, Raevyn." Before she could respond, Karr's voice was filtered through Kitt's speakers. "Rae?"

"Yeah, Karr?"

". . . you've been crying."

"Yeah," she replied, sniffing and clearing her throat.

"You're all right with the conditions?"

"You'll be safe," she whispered. "That's all that matters."

He was silent for a few moments before whispering softly, "No matter how I react to you in the next few days . . . I care for you. I don't mean any of what I will say. I promise."

"I-I know you won't mean it. I understand. Now get yourself into that new CPU so that we can fix you," she said hurriedly, tears choking her voice up. "I love you, too, Karr. I need you alive right now. Memories can be made again."

There was a possessive, kind growl of acknowledgement, and then Kitt began the transfer. But he didn't leave all of the newer memories in the locked memory vault. The younger AI found the memories of Raevyn's touch on the sensor, her steady, sleeping heartbeat against it, and her voice with Karr's as they bantered playfully, her laugh, her reassurance . . . and her whisper of affection when they had left the Knight estate only a week before. He bundled that up with the memories, hiding them under the more aggressive ones to be rediscovered at some point.

Kitt gently kept the feeling that he and Karr shared when they were around each other, the comfort between them, the camaraderie that they shared, and how they sought each other out for comfort. He found the sensation of Karr being "carried" from one CPU to another, safely, and installed that sensation first of all before "pouring" the brother into his new home.

Then it was done. Somehow.

Kitt began to back out slowly, but a tendril of Karr, hotter than before, almost burning, snapped out and grabbed the silvery consciousness. Karr's voice was heavy, snarling, haughty. _:__:__Kitt. What are you doing in my CPU, hm?:__:_

Quick to reply, but slow enough that it was holding the timbre of truth, Kitt outlined what had just happened. _:__:__You had a problem in your old CPU. You're in a new one. Check your memories; I just transferred you to this one.:__:_

Karr seemed to think upon this for a moment, then found the memory and released the younger AI. _:__:__For your sake, you must . . . be . . .:__:_ Voice fading, Karr managed to whisper, _:__:__Things are different between us.:__:_

_:__:Yes. There has been many years since you and I had fought. Karr, I will leave you a window to knock on if you need me. I'm drained, and need to recharge. Transferring you has taken a lot of energy.:__:_ Kitt turned and left.

Karr went through his memories, curling in upon himself in confusion at the sensations of a young woman . . . Raevyn . . . holding him. And she spoke of her love for him . . . and he loved her, or so he said. Love? When he wasn't supposed to have emotions? Sighing, he looked through his dictionaries, found no other English option, but a few Greek words that could help straighten that out, if need be.

So then . . . he had someone whom he trusted. Two of them. And they trusted him, too. He sighed and felt electricity recharging his new CPU. Leaving a text at the window for Kitt . . . his little brother . . . he loved his little brother . . . he was safe around him . . .

Karr slept the sleep of one exhausted.

.o.

Raevyn sat near the spare CPU, seeing that there had been a sensor installed upon it. Within two minutes, she was touching it gently out of habit and concern for Karr. It took three minutes for the AI's mind to boot up, and instantly, he snarled, "Hands off!"

Pulling her hand away with a smile, she whispered, "Hello, Karr."

He paused, matching her voice up with the voice that had whispered "I love you" from some time before. There was no timestamp upon that file. With a softer voice, the AI replied, "Hello, Raevyn."

"Is the CPU working well enough for you? I know that it's unfamiliar." She smiled, her hands playing with themselves in slight worry.

"I am functioning properly. I know why I was moved . . . and that I'm missing memories. But I know that I can trust you and Kitt, which confuses me. He and I are . . . were enemies. Maybe still _are_ enemies . . ."

"No, you're not. You and your brother trust each other implicitly. You trusted him without reservation for him to personally transfer you from your old CPU to this new one." She was glad to talk with him again, put at ease. Her hand rested upon the metal box, patting it gently. "A permanent one is currently being made for you, and Kitt will transfer you back to it once it's completed."

"I want to talk with him. I . . . who's there." His voice had gone from amiable to a cold snarl at hearing the door open.

"It's Devon—"

"I want him out. I don't trust him. He is one of the ones who had me turned off! He _offlined_ me! Get him out!" The venomous shriek caused the portable speakers to crackle, and Raevyn stood, turning and going to the door.

"Karr, I've got to talk to him for a moment. Please try to calm down; I'll be back in a few minutes." Pushing Devon back into the hallway, she whispered, "That was a really stupid move."

"Yes, well, I didn't expect him to be online so quickly after his ordeal."

"What's going on?"

"We found the problem with his old CPU. It had been an old code that was supposed to take him out over a longer period of time. It was an old program, one that _hadn't_ been continued to Kitt, thankfully. Essentially, Karr was supposed to go senile over the span of a year. With all the modifications that he has done to his programming on his own, it caused this senility program to move faster, thinking that he was a bigger threat than he actually was." The older man rocked back onto his heels, hands clasped behind his back, face drawn and worried. "I never thought that the program would activate, Raevyn."

Taking all that in, she crossed her arms over her chest, looking down. She was still young, almost done with her teenage years, and didn't want to think about such matters as this. Karr almost was lost to them again. This was his third chance. Rubbing at her face, feeling older by the minute, the young woman asked, "So what does this mean?"

"It means that the program is still in the old CPU, however, it will not be continued to any other AI, since it has the potential to go rogue."

"Anything else?"

"The Japanese pulled out of their side of the bargain. Since the programming was faulty, they want to see more versions of our artificial intelligence programs such as Kitt before they wish to invest more time and effort into giving you and Michael the chance to be literal partners with your AI." Sighing, Devon shook his head. "It's disappointing."

Nodding, Raevyn looked down the hall at a window, seeing that twilight was approaching. Karr wasn't going to be an android, huh? Regardless, he was still among them. That was what mattered the most. He was alive. Nodding, she asked, "Anything else come in from the dimwitted one?"

"Your suitor?"

"Who else?"

"A few dozen roses, a teddy bear, some rather scandalous red lingerie . . ."

"Please stop." Shuddering, shaking her head, she muttered, "The only man I will fall in love with is one that can compete with Kitt and Karr . . . and who is better than them."

"Isn't that an unreal expectation, my dear?"

Looking up at Devon, she whispered, "No. I never had a father to compare any suitor against. You're like my grandfather . . . and Michael's like an immature big brother who likes to show off. But they're . . . special."

"They're not human."

"They're more human than you give them credit for." She kept her voice soft, then sighed. "I want to come back to the Foundation. Karr . . . I can't keep him safe or keep him running if something like this comes up again. He means too much to me."

Reaching out to the young lady, Devon curled her up against his shoulder, feeling her cry silently against his blazer. She had been so scared that Karr wasn't going to pull through. And now she was relieved that he was fine, just missing some memories, but hadn't had a change to cry all of that relief out. Sighing, the man whispered, "We will make him a new CPU, better than the last, and don't you fear a thing, lass! He'll be back to himself in no time. I promise you." Kissing her crown, he whispered, "Now. Let's see that beautiful smile that wins everybody over, shall we? Aaah, there we go, bright eyes!" Wiping her tears with his thumbs, he whispered, "And even though I'm a stand-in grandfather, I still do want to let you know that I'm going to give the final okay on whoever you bring home. If he isn't scared off by Michael or Karr, and hasn't gotten confused by Kitt, well . . . he gets to deal with me first, then last. Okay?"

Snuffling, wiping her nose on the back of her hand, Rae looked up at the man who was currently financing her. "What about that current guy?"

"Oh, him? I sent him word yesterday that if he didn't stop sending you flowers, I was going to have someone bring the flowers back and do something horribly inappropriate with them."

"_You_ said that?"

"Well . . . no. Michael elaborated."

Laughing, Raevyn leaned into Devon's embrace again, relaxing for the first time in a week. She had missed her family.


	12. chapter twelve

Black Hawk Skimming  
By Sinead

.chapter.twelve.

"She's right behind this door."

Raevyn's head shot up from where she had been sitting, reading a book in the large closet-like room that Karr's temporary CPU was secured within. He used all the scanners and the videos possible to watch Raevyn. He could do that all day long, wanting to learn more about how she moved and who she was. Her hand had been resting upon the sensor just enough that Karr had been able to track her heartbeat.

The door opened, and Raevyn warily watched Devon walk in with a new man. "This is Phillip Ernham. He's one of the professors at MIT, and has come to speak with Kitt and Karr for his own AI project."

"And to come and speak with a certain Miss Starwalker who is from home soil," the professor said, half-bowing to hold his hand out for Raevyn to shake. She did so, still quite wary about him, but willing to be warm and friendly. His voice was kind, cultured and precise in how he enunciated his words. "It's an honor to meet the woman that an AI chose to be part of his life."

Karr was silent, not wanting to speak up to say that his databanks were only half of what they normally were. Raevyn spoke for him. "We're in a bit of a hard place right now, Professor Ernham. Karr is currently dealing with the aftermath of a virus, so you will have to excuse his reticence."

"I have heard about your recent troubles," he said with great gravity, his face genuinely worried. "But I have been in contact as a backup associate to a common goal that Devon here spoke about at a recent meeting of the minds that we held almost a year back in Cambridge. He spoke about an android project."

_No way that something is going to fall into our laps like this, _Raevyn thought with a frown. She voiced her words. "I'm sorry to sound doubtful Professor, but we just had one of our backers for that project leave because of the virus that Karr hadn't been protected from. So how can I trust that you're going to hold to the same standards that they did, when we haven't even had the chance to get to know you or work with any of your projects?"

He didn't answer for a moment, instead electing to think over his words carefully. Karr appreciated that care when the man did indeed speak, showing that he was knowledgeable of their situation. "Sony is fresh into the robotics industry, and their bipedal robots, while capable of much, cannot get any larger than four feet or they will topple over every third step. Honda has long been making robots that could walk, and could get them five feet tall, but nothing so compact as a human body while leaving room for a CPU for an AI." Sighing, Ernham looked directly at Karr, then up at Raevyn's eyes. "I know that your AI can hack—"

"I am _not_ 'her' AI," Karr snarled suddenly.

Raevyn chuckled and rested her hands on the regular metal of the CPU. "He didn't know that we have a partnership, not an ownership. You and I and Devon know the truth of the matter."

"Indeed we do," Devon replied softly, kindly. Karr had come to listen to him apologize profusely about past deeds, and allowed him into "The Closet" to speak with him on various 

occasions. "I apologize that I hadn't informed Professor Ernham of the status between yourself and Raevyn."

Making a neutral noise, Raevyn nodded and looked up at the new man. "Please, continue."

"Very well," he replied, smiling and clasping his hands behind his back, bouncing lightly on the soles of his feet. He was happy. "If Karr would hack into the cameras in the garage, he will see what I've brought with—"

"Raevyn! Go down there!" the AI interrupted again, his dark voice excited. "Please! I need to see that this is real and not some trick!"

She was out of there in an instant, obeying without questioning her friend. Respecting the AI's space, Devon chuckled and guided his friend out of the room. He gave a sideways glance to Ernham. "And what did I tell you about the real and functioning friendship between those two?"

"Yes, yes," the man from Connecticut replied with a chuckle. "I now owe you a vintage bottle of dry white wine. Very well."

.o.O.o.

Raevyn got herself down to the garage, and when she got down to the ground floor to walk over to Kitt's frame, looking around at a few new technicians and a young man who looked like he was just sitting on a stool beside a chuckling Michael. Maybe he was an old acquaintance. She rested her hand on the hood of the Mustang, then blinked and looked down at it. "Kitt, are you running cold?"

"No," Kitt replied, his voice sounding a little odd. "And I'm not in the car."

Slowly, she turned her head to look up at the amberish-reddish-haired young man on the stool. His silver eyes were oddly warm, for all that they didn't blink. Just as slowly, she walked away from the car to look at the man, seeing how his shoulders didn't rise to breathe, how he was completely still. "Kitt?"

Almost jerkily, the man nodded, getting used to the movement. "Yes, Rae. It's me."She reached out, touched the cold cheek, then blinked and touched it again before seeing him aim his eyes down at her face, moving faster over her features than a human's would. And a small smile stretched over the youthful yet wise countenance. She whispered, "That's why Karr sent me down so quickly."

"His body is behind the curtains. The transfer to that new frame will happen once he is all back together in the new CPU, which is just undergoing final tests." Kitt reached up with a clumsy hand to try to touch Raevyn's cheek, having been given a neural sensory connection, wanting to feel as much as he could. But the AI was both shocked and touched when she took the jerkily-moving hand within her own two hands and raised it up to her face for him, resting the palm against her cheek and smiling. He was warm, and the skin felt almost real. He sighed without realizing that he had and whispered, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," came the gentle reply. She kissed his palm, smiling up at him. "Thank you for putting yourself first, testing this out before Karr could."

Wincing lightly, Michael asked, "You don't think that Karr will be angry with us going before him, do you?"

"I don't think so," Raevyn replied immediately as Kitt began to get better fine motor control, enough to keep his hand and arm steady while touching her cheek lightly with his 

fingertips. He brushed his fingers through her bangs, his already-expressive eyes in wonder at the silky feel. "I think that he'll be glad that you're the prototype for once."

"It's . . . a privilege. Is everyone's hair as soft as yours?"

"No," Raevyn chuckled, in no rush to see Karr's body when she could be helping Kitt adjust to the new body. "Some people have coarser hair, and some have hair that is even more fine than mine. I actually have thick hair, and lots of it."

"Thick and dense."

"Sounds like you just described your partner."

Grinning, Kitt looked to Michael. "An apt description."

"Thanks, pal." Michael ruffled the autumn-colored head with a smile, not hard enough to set off the precious balance that Kitt had achieved, but not soft enough to be called a caress. He and Kitt were brothers in a way, and best friends in another way. They were partners in crime when it came to pranking someone, and partners in fighting against crime when it came to doing their job.

With a chuckle, Kitt looked back at Raevyn. "Karr is asking for a report, asking me if I'm really the one who is touching your head. He's gotten himself into a bit of a snarl about someone touching you that he doesn't know or trust."

"What camera?"

"The one to your left."

Turning, she smiled up at the device that was focused upon them, unlike all the other panning cameras that were around them. She nodded at the camera. "Tell him that I wouldn't let someone touch me that I didn't trust."

A moment later, Kitt chuckled. "He's still annoyed, only now because he wants his memories back and wants to either be in his car body or in his android. Are you sure that you don't want to see it yet?"

Nodding, the young woman replied, "I want to see it only when he's being installed. I don't want to ruin it for him, nor do I want to ruin the surprise for me."

"I understand. Michael and Bonnie were both happy and surprised to see my new face. As was I." Smiling, Kitt's voice lowered in his happiness. "I like expressing myself this way after so many years of having to learn how to express myself through tone of speech and subtle movements of a car body that is incapable of showing emotion."

"You don't have to explain it to me; I understand your struggles," Raevyn replied, gently rubbing her hand along an eyebrow to straighten the short hair. Kitt's eye squinted as she did that, and he was delighted at the split-second reactions that he had picked up from simply watching his human partner and all the humans that were also around him. Kitt could tell that Raevyn and Michael were also proud of him for the small accomplishments that he was achieving.

"Neither of you are asking me to walk . . ."

"Pal, how can you walk if you're only learning how to blink right now? Take one level of understanding your new body at a time. Learn the small things before you tackle the big things." Grinning, Michael Knight rested his hand upon Kitt's shoulder again. "We're happy that you're progressing so fast. Now one of the techies handed me a piece of paper that says that you have to breathe in order to cool your CPU sufficiently. And to blink from time to time to protect your optical sensors from damage. How about we work on that?"

"I agree," Kitt said with a grin, blinking to test it out. He cried out with a soft "ah!" before blinking again. "It clears the vision! It's like a manual reset button for these new sensors!"

"Iunno much about it, but I _do_ know that it says here that you have to do it."

Listening to them continue the exploration of each small nuance that would make Kitt's android body seem a little more human, Raevyn turned her head to look up at the camera that was still trained upon their small group. Her face was serious, yearning and tender. It was a face for Karr alone. She needed him to be as Kitt was: almost human.

She just didn't want to admit to herself the real reason why she wanted him human. But it was there in her mind nevertheless.

Raevyn, no matter what she said to anyone else about the AI that she was partnered with, never wanted to fall in love with any other being in the world. She only wanted to love Karr.

And that was what scared her.

.o.O.o.

He was whole again. After almost a week of knowing that his mind was fractured, split into two distinct pieces that fit together like two halves of one large puzzle, Karr was whole and he was ready to be back in a body. He just didn't know _which_ body to choose. And his logic and what he had dubbed as his "emotional" centers were simply unable to come to a conclusion of which frame should be fitted around his new CPU.

His logical side dictated that he return to the car, and return to being as nonhuman as possible in order to facilitate Raevyn to becoming the best woman she could be with his standoffish guidance and help. Karr didn't want to get in the way of her becoming attached to a real human, loving and loved by that man. He didn't want to be the reason why she couldn't have children so that he could guard her offspring, protecting them and maybe one day becoming a partner with one of _them._

But the side of Karr that was rapidly getting in the way of his logic had do to with these elusive and yet amazing emotions that the AI himself didn't quite understand. Those emotions warred with logic, saying that he should be integrated into the android frame. They pushed logic aside at some moments to insist that he wanted to take Raevyn as his own, purely his own! Let any human male try to get between him and the woman that cared for him, provided for him, and did her best to keep his head above the metaphorical water!

Karr wanted Raevyn all for himself.

Yes, it was selfish. Yes, it was illogical.

But it was for his own good!

_His_ own good.

Pausing in his self-analysis, Karr found the loop that he kept stepping over to try to keep convincing himself that this was both he and Raevyn wanted. It was the loop that said that he was the one that he, Karr, was looking out for. He wasn't looking out for Raevyn so much as he was looking out for himself, and looking for his own safety, protection, and peace of mind.

Karr had found that he was selfishly looking for his own respite. He wasn't looking for what Raevyn wanted, nor was he looking out for her best interest. She was his driver, and his driver was a part of him.

His driver was the one who pushed the gas pedal . . . or the brake. The one who shifted the gears, and turned the steering wheel. His driver was the one that he should be ultimately listening to, getting guidance from, and partnering with upon _their_ endeavors.

Not him.

And that was when Karr changed his programming.

"Raevyn . . . do you want me in that android body, or do you want me to continue to protect and serve you from being within that black Trans Am?"


	13. chapter thirteen

Black Hawk Skimming  
By Sinead

_**Author's Note:**__ It's a short chapter, but it's all that I could figure out for the moment, and I really didn't want to leave you hanging for too much longer._

..

"Excuse me?"

"I know that I've just interrupted your reading, but I have to know which path you wish for me to take. This is just as much your choice as it is mine."

Raevyn just stared at the new CPU in slight shock before actually getting herself to figure out a reply. Looking away, her gaze darting over the inside of the small room, completely thrown off by his question, the young woman just couldn't form words to reply.

"Rae?"

"I'm . . . I'm just shocked that you're asking me this."

"There is a very good explanation."

Dog-earing the page of the book that she was reading, setting the battered old favorite aside, Raevyn folded her hands together, then fooled with her fingers, twisting them lightly while she just tried to take in his few words. Then, hesitantly, she nodded. "I want to know how you think about this decision, Karr."

He wasted no time. "If I am to be within an automotive frame, I can protect you with my entire body. I can shield you. It's a more secure partnership in that way. You are the driver, I am the vehicle and the AI."

The young woman couldn't see how that would be more secure of a partnership. "Okay."

"If I were to go into the android body, I . . ." He faltered in his speech before seeming to tremble. "I will not lie to you. I want to go into the android body to be your partner, not just a vehicle. I want to be there with you . . . in . . . in every moment that you live in. Both the dangerous and the diplomatic situations. Why are you crying?"

Sniffing deeply, rubbing at the tears, Raevyn whispered, "I want that, too, but how can I be so sure that you're not going to get hurt? I don't want you hurt any more than you want me to be hurt. I . . . Karr, you know that I love you. You know that I hate seeing you confused, or in pain or . . . or unable to take care of either of us."

"I saw the video logs of when you had brought me back to the estate . . . I saw you . . . Raevyn, you were distressed past any level that I had previously seen." He paused for a soft moment, and when he resumed speaking, it was with a very tender tone, yet still very dark and smooth. "I can be repaired. You can't be. Even too much of a trauma can damage the mind beyond its ability to heal itself."

"You're starting to sound like Kitt," Raevyn laughed humorlessly, trying to stem the flow of tears.

The AI was quiet for another long moment. "Maybe because I've finally come to realize that when it comes to my driver . . . I . . ." Stuck, Karr fell silent. He didn't know how to articulate how he felt towards her in the English language.

"Karr?"

"It's almost _eros_ but it's more than _phileo_."

Psychology terms. Greek words describing different parts of the emotion 'love.' The first described what lovers felt for each other, the second a brotherly love. Raevyn understood the two terms immediately, and she hesitantly reached out to touch the plain CPU, not daring to touch the sensor that was built in for fear that it would only aggravate the situation. She didn't want . . . what? _What_ didn't she want to do with this situation? "Karr . . ."

"Raevyn, I don't want you hurt. But you deserve so much better than I do. I can afford to hurt _myself_ in this case." He went silent for a moment, introspective, and his voice crackled with what could only be emotion. "I am split evenly upon what to do. I don't want to lose you, and I want to be with you, but I know that . . ."

The door opened, and Kitt, as a human, walked in carefully, taking a seat as quickly as he could, reaching out to rest a hand upon the sensor without permission or preamble. "You can't cut me out as easily as you would wish, brother, not in this new CPU. Don't think that I can't feel your agitation."

"I didn't invite you here."

"I know that. Neither did you bar me from entering."

They debated silently for a moment before Karr snarled electronically and snapped, "Fine. Stay."

Kitt reached up to take Raevyn's hand, stroking the back of it with his thumb. "This is a decision that will affect the rest of your lives. I know that after taking this first step. Michael and I are able to relate as brothers, comrades that never have to question each other. I'm being reprogrammed gradually . . . humans call it training. It changes some reactions because I don't have a large, rolling body to protect Michael and move around in." He paused, then murmured, "But things are very, very different between you and Karr, and I make no assumptions that I can understand the depth of what is between you two."

There was silence for a long, long moment.

And then came the whisper. "I need you to leave, Kitt. And stay out of my processor. We need a private conversation." Karr's words were not angry, not even bitter or snarky. They were soft, factual, and pleading.

Standing, Kitt released Raevyn's hand, then smiled and left. The young woman looked to the CPU. "Karr?"

"I _want_ to do as he did. He took your hand, held your hand, touched you. I . . . I want that, Rae."

"I do, too."

"We can always reverse it if we don't work out well," he whispered, feeling her hand touching his sensor, her fingers trembling lightly. His voice grew stronger. "And we're partners, not owned by each other. Are you okay?"

"Yes," she whispered, detaching the wires that kept him plugged into the external systems. Picking him up, unaware that the sensor was then pressed against her heartbeat, Raevyn began the walk down to the garage. "I'm happy that you came to the decision."

"Are you happy _with_ my decision?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

And as she paused before the door to the garage and workshop, Raevyn murmured, "Because now I'm not the only one touching you to reassure you." And then she walked into the bright doorway.


	14. chapter fourteen

Black Hawk Skimming

By Sinead

..

Light.

Dark.

And then greys.

Karr felt his optical sensors beginning to boot up. He couldn't feel anything. That was disconcerting.

Shapes forming.

Smooth lines, sweet planes, and . . . beautiful eyes.

_Color_.

The light blush on her alabaster cheeks made his CPU want to dance. She was pleased! Her _golden_ eyes were lit up in a smile, and he felt something new begin to take root in the center of his consciousness. That smile caused something new in him. _Longing_. He wanted to touch that face, feel it with his hands. Her smile was tender, and she was patient, moving actual human hair that was implanted as a wig away from his face, stroking the forehead he still couldn't feel with her fingertips.

Depth perception came into play.

Wow.

He didn't look away from her face.

And he felt her hand within his. The sensation was sudden, and the touch was like fire. He carefully gripped her hand in return, softly curling his fingers around hers. Raevyn's whisper was still unheard, but her mouth moved as if she were saying his name. He could only watch her, feel her hand now moving over his forehead again, stroking it tenderly. It soothed him, bringing him back from the sudden panic that said that this wasn't the right thing to do, that he had made a mistake in going into this body.

His eyes half-closed, and he felt himself seem to draw inwards, concentrating upon that touch. And then he heard her humming. He could turn his head, and he did so, pushing his forehead against her hand, wanting more touch. His eyes closed at feeling her hand cup his cheek, warming it. Karr felt his vocalizer boot up, and with a smile, whispered softly, "Rae."

His hearing came next, just in time to make out her reply that was a welcome and an endearment in one, "Karr."

Nothing more was said for long minutes as his new frame came to life. His CPU needed to be cooled. So he breathed. His frame needed pressure taken off of certain areas, so he shifted himself onto his side with a lot of help from his partner. He felt lonely, weak, and so he was consoled as Raevyn got up onto the table and supported his head in her lap, running her hand through his hair.

"I feel strange."

"Good strange or a bad strange?" She helped him sit up as more motor control came to him, as he learned how to keep his balance.

Clumsily, watching his hand to make sure that it was doing the right movements, Karr managed to move it over and rest it upon Raevyn's hand. She turned her hand so her palm was against his, and her fingers wove through his. The sensation caused his processor to whirr silently, trying to identify what it was that he was feeling.

And he knew it was love. He knew it was the decision to love this young woman, this amazing woman who cared for him. He knew it was his programming _changing_. He felt it change, he felt his mindset shift. And he didn't care.

Karr rested his head upon Raevyn's shoulder, resting and letting himself just enjoy being able to be so close to her, able to express himself around her.

.o.

Kitt came up beside Raevyn, resting his hands upon her shoulders and leaning upon her lightly, a bright smile upon his innocent face. "How is he?"

"Recharging," came her reply as she leaned back against the android. He was a brother to her, and had been helping the pair really become more and more attuned to each other. With a smile, she looked up at his eyes, seeing their blue depths happy. Her voice was soft. "Karr was happy, saying that you really were right."

"He exhausted himself trying to learn and catch up." Smiling, she stroked the back of Karr's hand.

Kitt walked around the table that Karr lay upon and took the second stool. "I'm glad that we kept the technicians away from you and Karr while he woke up. That was something that I knew you two would need to do alone. Michael and I knew that if there had been any problems, you would call." He reached out to rest his hand upon his brother's, coming to rest beside him. "I am very happy for you both that he decided to do this."

"Why?" Raevyn asked, very curious.

He reached over the recharging android, stroking her face. "Because you love each other. And you both need to find out what kind of love you hold for each other."

.o.

Karr's movements were swift, deadly. He moved through the sets of martial arts with an ease that any master would envy. Raevyn watched him, moving around the room to see his movements from different angles. There was a deadly focus that he had on his face, determined to master his new body, to master his reactions and subroutines. He had been in his new body for two weeks, and there had been a growing tension between himself and Raevyn, and one that hadn't been between them before.

He spun when she was passing close behind him, pinning her against the wall and resting a hand on either side of her shoulders. His face leaned in, and he watched her expressions, which went from shocked to curious to a smile of trust. Chuckling, he whispered in a rough voice, "There is something about my sense of smell that you will not like to know about."

"Really," she murmured, smiling, curious.

"Pheromones. Hormones. I can smell them and catalogue them. They're as plain as day to me."

Her face paled lightly.

"You smell . . ." And he didn't finish it for a moment, leaning in and drawing in a deep breath from right at the corner of her jaw. "Like you want something _more_." He paused so close to her skin, but then drew back, dark brown eyes teasing.

The young woman gave him a teasing glare in return and slid out from under his arms, not wanting to deal with what he wanted to talk about. "So we have our first mission together in a week."

"Oh, we do," he replied, following her. He reached out and touched her back with his fingertips, pausing her forward movement. "But that is in a week, and it's all diplomatic." Karr moved around her, and tapped into the surveillance system, offlining the cameras. Looking down at her face, he murmured, "And we have some talking to do."

She looked up at him, saw that the camera behind him was off, and then bit the inside of her cheek thoughtfully. "All right." Taking his hand, she led him out of the training room, across the lawn, and into the Knight estate mansion. Karr frowned. She wasn't really going to bring him to her room, was she? That would be ridiculous. Her pheromones were already going through the roof, and he suspected that anything more would send her over.

But would he mind that so much?

They entered her suite, and Karr asked quietly, "Why here?"

Raevyn turned, still holding Karr's hand. "Because nobody will come in here to find us. We're never in here together." She started to let his hand go, but he didn't release her.

Pulling her close, he slowly, curiously, wrapped his arms around her. He felt her just as slowly return the embrace. And he spoke. "We need to talk about us."

Her arms tightened around him. "In what way?"

"You grow tense, and you get silent at strange moments around me. Why?"

Karr didn't loose his arms, and Raevyn leaned into his hold as she thought. It was a long moment that she finally broke with her words. "Because it's new to me, and while I've been trying to adjust to you being around me like this." She rested her cheek against his chest, feeling the beat of the fluid pump, hearing the air going down into the lungs to cool his CPU. "And I love you. And I know that I want more from us, but I don't know _how_ it's going to work out."

The AI analyzed this, then rested his cheek against her hair, curious to see how it felt. He processed the conversation, then murmured, "Neither do I. But I do have to admit that I enjoy holding you like this." Hearing her chuckle, feeling it, Karr didn't say anything more.

His mind was revolving around wondering where they were going to bring their relationship. It was no longer the car-driver relationship . . . so then what was it? He didn't know. But he didn't want to think too much upon it. He wanted to be able to hold her for just right now. And that was all.


End file.
